Chapter 064
Shimen Yihshyong
Yihshyong waited anxiously in the living room of their house. It was almost half-past twelve, yet Shannchyuan and the others had not yet returned. Indeed, there was still more than half an hour before the kidnappers were supposed to call them. But before twelve o'clock, they should be ready. There was no way that Shannchyuan, as soon as he entered the house, immediately had to take a call.
The situation he was in really wasn't something that normally happened in their daily lives. Not only them, things like that were also not common in other people's lives. Because not many people had experienced those things, there was no manual that he could read to determine the steps he should take next.
"I've noticed that since a while ago, you seem very restless." Duanmuh Jinqkang opened his mouth. Just like Yihshyong, the young man was sitting in the living room.
Yihshyong turned to the young man. His voice was indeed very similar to Shannchyuan's voice. With almost the same accent, if Yihshyong had not come face to face with the young man, he would not have known that it was not Shannchyuan speaking. Such a coincidence was truly a rare thing.
"Not just nervous. I'm really panicking right now." Yihshyong sighed once again. "Where have they been? It shouldn't take so long to give statements to the police. After all, even if it took the police a long time to extract information from them, Dahge could have gone home first. He didn't have to wait until it was over."
Did the cops forbid him to go home alone?
"Don't worry, Sir! I think they'll be at the door soon. I'm also sure they have good reasons not to hurry home."
Such remarks are completely unfounded.
Naturally, Yihshyong knew Jinqkang was trying to calm him down. One hundred percent, he realized he shouldn't make things more complicated. The restlessness he showed could have made the young man sitting near him feel uncomfortable. But Yihshyong was unable to hide what he felt. The thing that was happening was not an everyday event that he could take lightly.
"I hope you're right." Yihshyong forced himself to smile.
I hope my smile doesn't look so awkward.
Jinqkang nodded quickly.
"How is Mr Juger doing?" Yihshyong shifted their conversation to something else that he considered also quite important.
"Last time I saw, Mr. Juger was still sleeping. So I don't know how he felt. Maybe he's getting better. But maybe not."
"Does he have any health conditions that require special attention?"
"I don't know, Sir. As you already know, I haven't worked there long."
"I hope it won't be a big problem."
"I hope so too, Sir."
"You understand why I think this way, don't you?"
Jinqkang nodded. "The disease outbreak that occurred a few years ago was truly terrifying, Sir. It left a deep trauma in the minds of many people in our world. I understand that you and others are worried like this."
"The government declares that the epidemic is over. But we can never be completely sure about the truth of that statement. It is possible that some of these viruses mutate into other viruses, which are no less dangerous than the previous viruses."
Jinqkang didn't answer. He just nodded a few times.
Ah! I must sound like a crazy old man raving about absurd hypotheses!
"Are any of your close relatives also victims of the plague?"
"None of my relatives who are here got the plague, Sir. But some of my relatives in Yeuandong who have passed away."
"Ah! The people of this city are not affected by the plague."
When the plague first broke out, this gigantic city was one of the few areas that immediately closed all its borders. No one entered or left the city. The borders were opened only months after the central government announced that the outbreak of the disease had ended. So Yihshyong could understand that the people of this gigantic city did not have the same impression as those from other regions, who were exposed to the plague with such severe consequences.
Yeuandong was one of the areas where the death toll was high. Not the highest because there were several other areas whose conditions were much worse. However, that did not mean it was an achievement worth celebrating. What had happened was a humanitarian catastrophe that profoundly affected everyone's life. Regardless of the number of lives lost, everyone mourned all of them with a heart-piercing sadness.
Like other people, Yihshyong felt deep sadness when he heard and witnessed many people who had lost the people closest to them in their lives. He was so happy when the plague was over. But all left traumatized. Yihshyong, and others, realized that something like that might happen again. That's why when Yihshyong saw someone whose condition had suddenly deteriorated, such thoughts came out again.
Yihshyong hoped the anxiety he was feeling was just a completely unfounded anxiety. There's not enough reason to think that far. Positive thinking was what he should be doing. Yihshyong was absolutely not allowed to frighten the youth around him with negative thoughts that would harm them.
He turned his gaze back to Duanmuh Jinqkang. The young man was amiable. For the past few hours, Yihshyong had spent conversing with the young man. Yihshyong was happy that he had someone to chat with. The young man also seemed delighted. It might be because that day he didn't have to work.
Yihshyong concluded that the young man was very outgoing. He did not hesitate to talk at length about his background and family. Yihshyong was somewhat not too surprised to learn that the young man was actually from the same root clan as Shannchyuan, namely the Duanmuh family of the Nandao clan. Just like Shannchyuan, he looked simple, far different from the image of the Duanmuh family who came from the Nandao clan. Not all members of the Duanmuh family of the Nandao clan lived like aristocrats.
Yihshyong thought back to Shannchyuan's story about his family background. In the old world, where their ancestors came from, many clans bore the surname "Duanmuh." Of the many Duanmuh clans, there were five that were very prominent. The five clans were the great clans that were dominant in all aspects of life in society in the old world. The clans were Jongshan, Beeiguu, Shiya, Donghwu, and Nandao.
Actually, not everyone was willing to leave the old world. The number of people willing to emigrate was far less than the population in the old world. The group that was willing to move was also divided into several social strata. Important people who hold control in society belong to the elite. Those people, all members of their families, servants, and family members of their servants, would get a prime place in every fleet that would sail through the sky in search of a new world. That prime place was in the first, second, third, and so on until the sixteenth ship in each fleet. The seventeenth ship to the last ship was filled with ordinary people.
The 21st Fleet, led by the Great Admiral Maajenq Baoher, was one of the many fleets transporting people who would emigrate to the new world. Like other fleets, the 21st Fleet was enormous. Comprising three hundred giant ships, each of which could carry an unusually large number of passengers.
Since the Jongshan, Beeiguu, Shiya, Donghwu, and Nandao Clans were important clans, all members of the Duanmuh family belonging to those five notable clans had priority on occupying the leading ships in the 21st Fleet. So it shouldn't be possible for Duanmuh's family members to be passengers on the less essential vessels of the 21st Fleet. However, plans were not always in line with reality.
There were twelve young men from the Duanmuh family who were late to the place where the giant ships were taking off. Five of the twelve youths surnamed Duanmuh were from the Nandao Clan. The other four youths were from the Jongshan, Beeiguu, Shiya, and Donghwu Clans, respectively. The other three, also surnamed Duanmuh, were from clans that were not among the elite. They could be together with the elite Duanmuhs because they were the servants of one of them.
The youth's reasoning made no sense to their family members, who had already boarded the main ships. The youths said they had to help the less fortunate people who wanted to join the colony's ships but couldn't because of various obstacles. Yihshyong did not know if the youths had succeeded in helping those poor people. Shannchyuan himself didn't seem to know any further about the fate of those less fortunate.
What Yihshyong knew, of course, from what Shannchyuan had said, was that the young men had finally boarded the last ship of the 21st Fleet. The giant ship was so big and roomy. The youths then found their life partner on the ship. Indeed, according to historical records, there were many single men and women on the ship. They then breed on the ship along the way.
The descendants of the five youths who came from the Nandao clan then divided their line into five clans. Each clan was descended from each of the five youths. The splinter clans of the Nandao Clan were Jongnandao, Beeinandao, Shinandao, Dongnandao, and Tiannandao.
There were also members of the Nandao Clan who refused to join any of the new five clans. Those who insisted on it still declared themselves to be members of the one and undivided Nandao Clan. The members of the new five splinter clans referred to them as Jennandao.
Their descendants became important figures during the migration from the old world to the new world. Duanmuh Jinqkang was a member of the Jongnandao clan. Meanwhile, Duanmuh Shannchyuan was a member of the Tiannandao Clan. Even though they were split into five different clans or six clans, if the root clan was counted, the relationship between those clans was very close. Such circumstances made it difficult for the other clans to shake the influence of the Nandao Clan and its five splinter clans.
The Duanmuh family, who settled in the new world, consisted entirely of sixteen clans. They were the five main Duanmuh clans, namely Jongshan, Beeiguu, Shiya, Donghwu, and Nandao. Then the five new clans that previously were part of the Nandao Clan. The last six clans were the less important Duanmuh clans in the old world.
In short time, the people from the six Duanmuh Clans, namely the Nandao Clan and its five splinter clans, or rather the Duanmuh Clan from the last ship in the 21st Fleet, dominated the new world. It could be said that they were the rulers of the new world. The family members belonging to the six clans received extraordinary privileges.
Family members from the other four Duanmuh clans, who belong to the elite group, although not in power, still got some privileges. The rest, the six insignificant Duanmuh clans, were about the same standing as the other commoners. The difference was that sometimes they get a bit of ease when trouble or disaster befell them.
The new world was vast. Thousands of times larger than their old world. In addition, the composition of land and water in the new world was inversely proportional to the composition of land and water in the old world. However, during the first two thousand years there, the human community only dared to stay around where their ancestors landed, which was about five hundred kilometers east of this gigantic city. After they felt ready, they ventured to move forward in all directions. They valiantly spread to all corners of the new world.
Like the other families, the sixteen clans were also scattered throughout the new world. Although in reality their distribution was not evenly distributed at all, they were present in almost all regions. Most of Duanmuh was concentrated in the central region. Duanmuh family members were infrequent in areas far from the center of power, for example, in Yeuandong. The Duanmuh family in Yeuandong was one of the few Duanmuhs living there. Yihshyong had heard Shannchyuan say that his family had lived in Yeuandong for more than twenty generations.
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