Chapter 187: The Long-Awaited Place

Yang Chen stood up from his seat, wiping his greasy hands with a napkin. "Let's go, I'll take you somewhere."

"Where to?" Tangtang asked, worried that Yang Chen would insist on taking her home.

"To a high-end internet café," Yang Chen replied.

"Internet café?" Tangtang's face lit up with joy. "Uncle, you're so nice. Not only did you treat me to a meal, but you're also taking me to go online!"

Yang Chen chuckled. "Don't worry, I'm not planning to play games with you. I want to show you something."

Ignoring Tangtang's questions, Yang Chen led the way out.

Tangtang stuck close to him as they walked together. After a few dozen meters, they arrived at a large chain internet café.

Upon entering, Yang Chen requested the most expensive single-person isolated internet booth. Tangtang, curiouser now, wondered what Yang Chen wanted to show her, especially in such a secretive manner.

"Uncle, you don't plan on, you know, doing that thing with me in the internet café, do you?" Tangtang asked shyly.

"What thing?" Yang Chen was puzzled.

Tangtang blushed. "You know, that intimate stuff! Why choose an internet café? Even if it's a separate room, people would still feel embarrassed. Uncle, you're really naughty, liking this kind of setting."

Yang Chen finally understood what Tangtang meant. He reached out and lightly tapped her forehead. "What nonsense are you thinking? Am I that kind of weirdo?"

"Looks like it," Tangtang said weakly.

Ignoring the whimsical thoughts of this sprightly adolescent, Yang Chen entered the separate room and turned on the computer.

Standing behind Yang Chen, Tangtang stopped joking around and patiently watched.

After opening the browser, Yang Chen adeptly entered a website address. After hitting enter, a very peculiar image appeared on the screen.

The entire screen turned black, followed by the appearance of a faint golden ring-shaped object in the center. The ring-shaped object was divided into inner and outer layers.

Yang Chen began to input various English subtitles and numbers within the blank spaces of the inner and outer layers of the ring-shaped object.

Tangtang was stunned as she watched. She noticed that the website address Yang Chen had entered had turned into a row of characters, making it impossible to discern the specific address, but it exceeded twenty characters in length.

What was even more terrifying was that the number of characters to be entered within the two rings seemed to have exceeded one hundred, all turning into symbols, apparently some sort of password.

After Yang Chen finished inputting, the two ring-shaped objects started rotating. When they reached a certain point, as if perfectly aligned, they disappeared from the screen.

3.5

"Uncle, this is so cool! Your account has a password of over a hundred characters! How do you remember it?!" Tangtang exclaimed in disbelief.

Yang Chen thought that there was no need to remember. With his brainpower, even a thousand characters would just be a glance, but he casually explained, "Just type it out a few times."

"Now that the screen is black, what do you want me to see, Uncle?" Tangtang's anticipation grew.

Yang Chen rummaged around and took out a set of headphones and a microphone from a drawer below. After connecting them to the computer, he said into the microphone, "Picture!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the black screen disappeared, revealing an album page with various categories, each with a cover displaying the name of the category.

Yang Chen uttered another word, but this time it wasn't English or Mandarin. To Tangtang, it sounded like a minority language, but she couldn't pinpoint which one it was.

After saying that word, a picture appeared on the screen. It depicted a tribal village with grass huts decorated with colorful totem symbols, surrounded by bonfires, and various animal skulls serving as flags. In the distance were towering snow-capped mountains, beneath which stretched an endless yellow grassland.

"Uncle, where is this?" Tangtang asked, completely engrossed by everything strange.

Yang Chen said with a tinge of nostalgia, "This is a tribal village called Budiaragwa in Africa, located on a plain in Central Africa. Although it's within the territory of a certain African country, it's almost like a lawless primitive area."

"That village, along with some other similar tribal villages nearby, still maintains a nearly primitive society with a slave system. They struggle against wild animals, extreme weather, often going days without enough food, and sometimes resorting to bloodshed to fight for water sources."

"The mountain deity they worship has never blessed them. When someone falls ill, they are thrown into the desolate wilderness to be eaten by wild animals because they fear the spread of disease, and they have no means to treat it."

Tangtang listened intently. "They're so pitiful. How can there still be places like this in the world? Uncle, how did you get the pictures from there? Have you been there?"

"About six years ago, I needed to stay there for about half a month due to some matters. Since there wasn't much to do during the waiting period, I used a special camera to take some pictures," Yang Chen explained. He was barely eighteen at that time.

Then, using voice control, Yang Chen flipped through several pictures depicting the primitive lives of the villagers in the village—unclothed, painted faces, dark-skinned men, women, and children, eating charred and bloody meat from wild beasts.

One photo that made Tangtang blush depicted the villagers engaging in reproductive activities outdoors.

It was a society completely detached from the modern world, seemingly abandoned by the rest of humanity since the dawn of civilization thousands of years ago.

Another photo showed a female villager lying on a bed made of stones and dry grass. A newborn baby, very thin, crawled on her chest, apparently just born. On the other side of the bed, a girl sucking her finger sat, her eyes wide open, watching her brother and mother.

"What's this, Uncle?" Tangtang asked, her voice trembling.

"The woman is a widow in the village. Her husband was bitten to death by a cheetah, leaving her with only this baby boy. But not even two months later, she contracted cholera and had constant diarrhea. Her body became as emaciated as a mummy. When I took this photo, the woman had already passed away. However, the baby boy, unaware that his mother had died, was very hungry and wanted to suckle. So, he climbed onto his mother's chest and started suckling. But how could a woman whose body had been drained still nurse her child? The girl next to the bed is the older sister. She was also very hungry because no one else would feed them. But she knew her mother had died, so she just sat at the bedside, staring at her brother sucking while she sucked her finger," Yang Chen explained.

Tangtang's eyes turned red before Yang Chen could finish. "Uncle, what happened to them later? Did they starve to death?"

Yang Chen shook his head, a hint of desolation in his eyes. "They didn't starve to death. Before they could starve, the villagers found out that their mother had died and dragged them out. The siblings became the food for the village that day. Everyone was happy. They all got a piece of meat, including what they called their grandparents."

"Oh!" Tangtang exclaimed, covering her mouth, tears streaming down her face. "How could they do that, eat people?!"

"For them, children without a mother are like young lions without lionesses and lions to take care of them, ready to be eaten at any time," Yang Chen said with a bitter smile. He knew Tangtang would be upset, but he didn't expect this girl to be so innocent, bursting into tears directly.

Tangtang turned her head away, wiping her tears, and waved her hand to Yang Chen. "Stop talking, Uncle. Shut it down. I don't want to see anymore."

Yang Chen nodded and exited the system. The computer screen returned to its initial desktop, as if nothing had happened.

"Uncle," Tangtang turned back, asking, "Although I don't know why you went to such a place, why didn't you save them? They died like that, and they were so young, it's too pitiful."

"Save them? How could I save them? Do you know, at that time, I was even younger than you are now. Do you expect me to take those two children out of the vast grassland? Maybe the little girl could manage, but her brother, still breastfeeding..." Yang Chen shook his head, sighing. "Moreover, how could I possibly save them? This kind of situation happens almost every day there."

Tangtang fell silent, sniffling. "Uncle, why did you show me these? It's made me so sad."

Yang Chen smiled faintly. "I wanted to give you a comparison. Compared to them, how has your life been since you were little?"

"Compare me?" Tangtang pouted. "How could you compare me? Although my parents couldn't be together, at least I had parents since I was little. And I never lacked money, could buy whatever I wanted."

"That's right, compared to them, you're incredibly fortunate. They couldn't have someone like me, even if they ran away from home, to take them to McDonald's," Yang Chen teased, then continued seriously. "You think your life is tiring, your family unhappy. But have you ever thought about how many children in the world are facing their tragic fate like theirs? Even someone like me, who grew up in a happy family, would I go to such a desolate place for over half a month before I turned eighteen? You have someone who cares for you, who provides for your food, clothes, and education. Yet, because your mother is strict with you and has thoughts of finding a man, you had a fight with her and ran away from home. Do you know how many people dream of having a home like the one you left?"