“Please have a seat,” The guy invited Shi Jia and Yao Xiaoyu to sit on the stone chairs, then he took out a bamboo cup with some strange drawings on it.
“Did you draw these?” Shi Jia asked.
“Yeah,” the guy smiled. “I used to be an artist.”
“It must be really hard for you right?” Shi Jia said while turning the cup.
“Pardon?” the guy was confused.
“How were you not starved to death? I mean, no one would want these hideous drawings.”
Embarrassed, the guy replied while rubbing his nose, “Yeah, my drawings are quite abstract and people usually don’t appreciate them. I almost starved to death back then. A bolt of lightning struck me out of nowhere and that’s how I’m here. Although it’s quite backwards here, there are food, drinks, and shelter. Oh look at me, I almost forgot to introduce myself, my name is Zhang Peng.”
“Tent?” Yao Xiaoyu grabbed a cup of water and took a sip. Why would your parents give you such a name? was the only thought running through her mind.
Zhang Peng smiled awkwardly, “Well, Zhang Peng does mean tent in Chinese but Zhang is my family name and Peng is my given name. If you look at each word individually, it’s actually fine. But that’s how it sounds like when it’s combined. Anyway, I’m used to it so it’s fine.”
Shi Jia stood up and walked around the settlement. She was very confused by what was happening, like where they were and whether they would be able to return.
“Where are we?” She turned around and asked Zhang Peng.
“Where?” Zhang Peng shrugged his shoulders. “Although I have been here for more than five years, I still survived this place without knowing where I am.”
“I slowly adapted to this place. A few years have passed now and I have already got used to it. As for where this place is, I have no idea, the only thing that I know is,” Zhang Peng pointed to a direction, “There is an active volcano right there. There are some weird giant monsters as well. And yeah, you can tell that they’re dinosaurs, they are actually dinosaurs.”
“As for the question of how do we get back,” Zhang Peng ponder while touching his chin. “I still haven’t discovered an alternative, maybe you need to get struck by lightning?”
“Have you tried it before?” Shi Jia asked. This was the only way where anybody could have thought of in the beginning, as that was how they were brought here.
Zhang Peng pointed his hair, “Look at my stylish hairstyle, it was caused by a second lightning strike and that nearly got myself killed. After going through all that, I was still here after five years.”
So, staying here was much easier than going back.
“However, there are some benefits to staying here as well. I could relax forever, do not have to work, earn money or running around all the time just to buy a house, a car or taking care of my other half.”
“You got a wife?” Shi Jia questioned Zhang Peng cooly.
“Well…” Zhang Peng laughed awkwardly. “I haven’t got one, but this is a matriarchal society where women are powerful but there are few of them. Instead of taking a wife, the woman here would choose their husbands, and it’s polyandry, which means this is a heaven for women.”
Yao Xiaoyu shrunk her shoulder, imagining the men with a robust body. She would prefer to be alone for a lifetime, rather than giving birth for the cavemen, one by one.
“Women were considered assets in all the tribes. The more women they have, the stronger the tribe. Certainly, there were times where war will be initiated by the foreign tribe to snatch women and food from the others,” Zhang Peng continued.
“Just like what happened last night?” Shi Jia asked. This was quite similar to her guess.
“Yeah,” Zhang Peng nodded. “People from that tribe are quite barbaric, it’s better to eliminate them. They consume not only animals but also humans. I’ve wanted to destroy them for more than half a year. There was a chance recently, otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to sleep comfortably with them by my side.”
“By the way, how could you guys get there? Were…” Zhang Peng pointed at the cavemen, “Were you guys caught by them?”
Yao Xiaoyu held her head down, wiping the cold sweat falling from her head, feeling grateful that the cavemen started fighting each other. Otherwise, she would be caught as their woman, or be eaten by them, it was bad either way.
Shi Jia picked up a weed from the floor and bit it gently while looking in the distance. No one could tell what was in her mind. Was it her distant love? Or relatives that she could never meet again?
For her, this might only mean a temporary parting, but for others, she might as well be dead to them.
“Cut.” the director shouted abruptly. The last frame captured was Yan Huan’s flashback in her eyes. Perhaps due to Lu Yi’s death, her acting style had altered slightly. Her acting was once skillful and stunning. But now, it has become low profile and introverted. Nevertheless, people were moved by it.
Yan Huan walked around and found a seat. She came alone without an assistant and worked out everything by herself. She took the meal prepared by the kitchen and started eating alone. She used to be a picky eater as there was a guy who loved to nag about her picky eating, and she was fond of his nagging, enjoying it, actually.
That was the reason why sometimes, she might be quite a pretentious woman. She would do what she had been doing, while desired to listen to his nagging so that she could feel that she was on his mind.
In fact, it was unnecessary to do so. It was clear that she had been always on his mind, she was much more important to him than his own life.
Life was so precious that one could only live once, but he exchanged his own for hers.
She hated herself for not treating him nicely, for being mad at him, for losing temper toward him. They were rarely together because she was filming. If she was given another chance, she would rather stay by his side, like in the past, when he would bring her meals every day, staying together for the afternoon, accompanying each other silently.
However, she clearly understood that all of these were impossible.
God would not grant her a third chance, and she would never have a third chance.
She stuffed the food into her mouth, just like chewing wax, she could not taste any flavor, only eating instinctively, as she swallowed it down.
Liang Chen stood up and wanted to go over to her, but Qi Haolin grabbed Liang Chen’s hand, shaking her head at him.
“She doesn’t need anyone’s concern right now.”
“Why?” Liang Chen did not get it.
