Chapter 224: Is this Earth?
Meteor! That was the only thing that Ling Chen could think of. I just came out for a stroll and I managed to encounter such a rare sighting. What is happening?!
The meteor was falling at a high speed – a speed faster than the speed of sound. However, this meteor wasn’t falling at a ridiculous rate, otherwise Ling Chen would not have had time to react. Anyway, the meteor itself did not have the explosive power; what was scary was the speed of it when it landed. It was able to create a powerful impact, big enough to affect a large area.
It was impossible to avoid the area of impact because when Ling Chen noticed the meteor, it was positioned directly above him! His sense of danger allowed him a short period of time to escape. During this time, every millisecond was the difference between life and death. In this time frame, he clenched his teeth, held onto Shui Ruo and ran forward with all his might.
The sound from the meteor falling above grew louder and louder until it was almost deafening to the ear. As Ling Chen ran with all his might, the air behind him became scorching. At this moment, Ling Chen jumped and lunged forward onto the ground. He held Shui Ruo and covered her body with his.
This is definitely a meteor, Ling Chen thought to himself.
Boom!!!!!
The huge sound was as terrifying as a landslide or tsunami. Because Ling Chen was protecting Shui Ruo with his arms, he was not able to cover his ears. The sound caused him temporary deafness, where the whole world seemed to be roaring. The ground also shook aggressively and the heat behind him was almost burning him alive. At least the impact didn’t affect their bodies, which meant that they were outside of the meteor’s range of impact. The temperature of the air was initially unbearable but it quickly cooled down and Ling Chen was relieved that they were lucky to make it out alive. However, he stayed down and continued to protect Shuo Ruo because the high density and energy matter in the meteor could create a second explosion stimulated by the high heat as it hit the ground.
A noise came from the sky. It must have been the sound of the meteor pieces flying around. After such a big impact, it was normal for meteor pieces to be flying around. A few landed on Ling Chen’s back, but while none were big enough to cause damage, they were still hot enough to cause pain to him. After a while, everything calmed down and Ling Chen regained his hearing. ‘Ruo Ruo, are you ok?” He asked.
“I’m… fine. What just happened brother?” Shui Ruo said. She remained covering her ears but was otherwise perfectly fine due to being under Ling Chen’s protection.
“It was a meteor. The gods were probably jealous of you and I and so they threw a giant rock down to play with us,” Ling Chen said, chuckling. He picked himself up, his back covered with sweat. Although the danger had passed, he was still fearful. This attack from mother nature… no, mere humans were not capable of detecting and dealing with a meteor. If he hadn’t discovered it early, both Shui Ruo and himself would have died right there. That would have been too tragic.
He picked up Shui Ruo as well as the bag she held on to before. This bag contained the things they had bought from shopping. Shui Ruo cleared the dust on her and said, surprised, “Meteor…? Look, brother!”
Shui Ruo pointed toward the meteor behind Ling Chen. He turned around and the sight was as expected. An endless hole had appeared on the land in front, with heavy white smoke everywhere. Around were pieces of big and small meteor fragments and each piece had smoke coming from them.
He walked towards the big hole. It was 10 to 20 metres in diameter and 5 to 6 metres deep. To Ling Chen’s surprise, there was no meteor in the big hole but rather only a couple pieces of fragments.
Did the meteor explode before crashing into the ground? He looked around and saw a lot of fragments, confirming his theory.
“That was terrifying,” Shui Ruo said, patting her chest for comfort. Before she was confused, but now she felt terrified. If it weren’t for Ling Chen’s extraordinary reaction skills, the results would be unthinkable.
“These things only happen in legends and stories. This is something we would normally never encounter. I’m not sure if we’re lucky or unlucky,” Ling Chen said and held onto Shui Ruo’s hands. “The sound from the big explosion must have travelled for a long distance. There will probably be people here in a short while. We should go back first and try on our new clothes.”
Now that their clothes were dirty, there was no choice but to change. It probably wouldn’t take long before the meteor got on the news.
They walked for a short while until Ling Chen stepped on a small meteor fragment and heard it emit a weird sound. Ling Chen stopped in his tracks and picked it up because of his curiosity. It was still hot but not unbearably so. It was rare to find a meteor from the universe on earth and he had only intended to have a look at it but the feel of the rock took him by surprise.
Metal?
If this was metal, then why did it explode when it landed?
He turned it around and saw that the other side of the fragment was glass.
Glass?
Or… Some kind of transparent natural substance?
This glassy material was clearly a residue left from the fragment. But upon closer observation, apart from the side that was shattered, the top was perfectly flat and parallel, just like refined glass in everyday life. Ling Chen flicked the glass hard, which caused his fingers to hurt slightly, but the glass was perfectly fine. If it was normal glass from earth, or even tempered glass, he was confident that he would have been able to shatter it easily.
“Brother, did you find something?” Shui Ruo asked curiously as she saw him puzzled and intrigued by the piece of meteor.
“Things from outer space cannot be interpreted by common sense. Whatever, let’s just leave it for them scientists to examine it,” Ling Chen said, throwing the piece away. These things from outer space might be elements that are not found on earth, but it didn’t spark his interest enough for him to take a few pieces for keeps. He felt the need to look at the Chinese calendar when he returned home. [TLN: Probably to see if today was an auspicious day or something]
Meteor pieces were everywhere on the ground, some big some small. There were less and less pieces as they walked, clearly a result of the meteor explosion. After walking for a while, they stopped in their tracks because of something.
“Brother look, there’s a person there… I think it’s a girl.”
In front of them was a person lying on their back. She was small in stature, dressed fully in black with white laces on the side of her skirt. Under the skirt were thin legs, almost like tender bamboo shoots in spring. She had a small body, small neck, small arms, small waist and short hair. Looking at her closely… she was obviously still a little girl.
In front of the girl was a decent sized piece of meteor.
Ling Chen was surprised as he remembered scanning the area and seeing no one. How was it possible for a little girl to be here? Maybe she appeared when Ling Chen ducked down to avoid the meteor and was hit by a meteor fragment. She seemed to be unconscious.
“I think she was hit by the meteor. Brother, lets go have a look,” Shui Ruo said worriedly upon seeing the unconscious girl. She dragged Ling Chen with her.
“Little girl, little girl, wake up,” Shui Ruo said, gently shaking the girl. Looking closer at her, she seemed to be around 10 years old and was really cute. She had a tender and perfect face, without any hint of imperfection. Ling Chen crouched next to her, confused. Theoretically, if she was unconscious from being hit by the meteor fragment, it was only reasonable that it had hit her head. However, there was not a scratch on the little girl’s forehead.
Maybe the back of her head? But if that was so, she should be lying face-first on the ground and not like how she was now.
More importantly however, was that the girl was breathing normally, so her injury was probably not life threatening. Ling Chen was relieved, and he said comfortingly to Shui Ruo, “Don’t worry, she should be fine, probably just slightly traumatised from the scare.”
“Ok, maybe we should send her to the hospital. Or should we find her parents first? Is there a phone on her?” Shui Ruo asked calmly.
Shui Ruo searched her pockets but couldn’t find anything. She looked at the girl for a short while and said, “Brother, look at this little girl, she’s so cute. If only I had a cute little sister like her.”
“Ruo Ruo was much cuter when you were little,” Ling Chen chuckled.
“Brother look, she’s awake!” Shui Ruo exclaimed happily.
Normally, when you wake up from being unconscious, there was a short period of confusion and haziness. But the little girl just stood up as soon as she was awake. A pair of glistening eyes stared directly at them. The way she was looking at them was very weird and Ling Chen did not understand what it meant.
“Little girl, you’re awake! You were unconscious before, do you feel any discomfort?” Shui Ruo asked her.
The little girl ignored her and looked at the area around them. She looked slightly confused and worried but also excited. Ling Chen could not figure her out. Then the girl said to them, “So this is earth?”
Shui Ruo “…………….”
Ling Chen “…………..”
This was such a good question!