Embers Ad Infinitum

At early nine o'clock the next morning, Bai Chen drove a camouflaged jeep, carrying three other members of the "Old Tune Team" and Feilin, the leader of the "Rootless" camp, followed by a group of five or six vehicles. The caravan headed towards Wild Grass City.

I don’t know whether it’s due to rushing work or striving for authenticity. After the repaint, the color of the Jeep is not coordinated in many places, but it can be roughly seen that it is military green camouflage.

This is very similar to most Jeeps running on dirt - once they get bumped, there is either no place to repair them, or they can be repaired casually without paying much attention to it.

The reason why Feilin didn't take his business group's car was because he felt that he would be separated from his good brother Shang Jianyao when he arrived at Weedao City, and he had to seize the time to chat for a while.

This resulted in three large men being squeezed into the back row of the Jeep. Fortunately, the car was spacious and did not affect the riding experience.

After leaving the camp and going around to the other side, Long Yuehong finally saw the most important facility in this area:

Waterworks.

It is surrounded by green trees, the environment is quite good, and it seems to be "taken care of" well.

After passing the water plant, a city ruins gradually unfolded in front of all the members of the "Old Tuning Group".

Almost all the high-rise buildings here have collapsed. Gray or brown "clumps of mud" and stubbornly angled rusted steel bars are piled together in a messy manner. They are covered with withered yellow ivy leaves and various plants, and only the faintest parts are visible. part.

It's like countless people who were buried alive finally stretched out their hands and tried to grab something before they died.

Compared with the ruins of the city deep in the swamp, the original appearance of the old world is completely lost here.

Even the ruin hunters have given up here.

—The remaining things are either difficult to collect or worthless.

If he had never been into the depths of the swamp and never seen the silhouette of the old world, Long Yuehong would at best sigh at such a scene. But now, his mood was extremely complicated, inexplicably heavy and sad at the same time.

"Hey..." Jiang Baimian, who was in the passenger seat, sighed "gently".

Feilin sat between Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong, looked out the window and said:

“When my grandfather was still alive, he told me what kind of tourist city this was.

"Otherwise, they wouldn't have come all the way here in an RV."

Shang Jianyao didn't answer Feilin's words and said abruptly:

"I want to play a song."

"The one that recalls the past?" Jiang Baimian asked knowingly.

Shang Jianyao nodded heavily:

"right."

"Forget it, forget it, it affects your mood." Jiang Baimian waved his hand, "This road is already difficult, so don't disturb Bai Chen."

In the ruins of this completely abandoned city, due to the collapse of buildings and subsidence of the ground, many roads were either buried or interrupted, making them inaccessible at all. Vehicles could only constantly change routes and move forward little by little.

Fortunately, Bai Chen, Feilin, and the "rootless people" leading the way are all familiar with this place and will not get lost.

"I really have to thank those ruin hunters for getting rid of all the cars blocking the road. Otherwise, we would have to go around the ruins of the city, which would be a waste of time." During this process, Jiang Baimian said with sincere emotion.

"This is also due to us." Feilin smiled and touched his gray beard. "Many of the cars in our business group were obtained from here. Now they are all seniors."

While chatting, the convoy spent more than an hour slowly passing through the most severely damaged areas of the city. The road conditions gradually improved, and you could even see a mid-air road supported by huge gray-white pillars ahead. It was unusually empty. The signs of damage are not very obvious, but there are many dead weeds.

After an unknown amount of time, the convoy arrived next to the "Zhuo River".

The water here is rolling with a yellowish color and seems to be mixed with a lot of sediment.

Since it is winter, many parts of the river bed are directly exposed to the air and are full of silt.

Diagonally in front of the convoy, a medium-sized bridge supported by a pair of piers spanned the two banks.

After crossing the new bridge and driving forward for about ten minutes, a gray-white city wall more than ten meters high came into view.

"That's Weed City." Felin introduced.

"Is there a city wall?" Long Yuehong asked in surprise and curiosity.

He remembered that it was written in the textbook that cities in the old world no longer had to build tall and strong walls like they did in ancient times. At most, schools and other places would build a low wall for the convenience of management.

If it was done after the destruction of the old world, what a huge project it would be!

Felin smiled and said:

“This is an accessory to the ruins of the city just now.

"Before the destruction of the old world, it was said to be some kind of ancient city."

"Tourist attraction? In order to restore the style of the ancient times, the city wall was preserved and repaired?" Jiang Baimian speculated based on his own knowledge.

Felin said "hmm":

“I heard that at the very beginning, when many survivors were preparing to establish settlements, they considered the previous ruins, but the damage there was too serious, and here there is a city wall, its own water plant, and it is also close to the hydropower station. "

Having said this, he chuckled and said:

"Although the city wall cannot protect against cannons and bombs, it can at least block wild beasts, monsters and 'unintentional people', giving everyone a greater sense of security."

While talking, the convoy arrived at the gate of Weed City.

It's a bit congested here, and the Jeep's speed is very slow.

Long Yuehong pressed down the car window, looked out, and found a crowd of people crowded at the city gate.

They were wearing tattered or old clothes, their faces were pale in the cold winter wind, and their lips were already a little blue.

Most of these people are young and middle-aged men and women, followed by children, and there is no elderly person.

Their expressions were more or less numb, and they moved forward mechanically along the line.

"What is this?" Long Yuehong looked back at Feilin.

Felin half propped up his body and tried his best to glance at the city gate.

He quickly sat down again, sighed and said:

"These are wilderness wanderers with little winter food. They come to Weed City to try their luck."

"Can I find a job here?" Long Yuehong asked in the manner of company employees.

Felin smiled self-deprecatingly:

"The luckiest ones are taken in or bought by the 'Hunters Guild' and trained as direct descendants.

"Those who are less fortunate are favored by noble lords and become slaves.

“Those who are worse off will be taken to various surrounding manor houses to be serfs.

"Unlucky, I was bought back by someone in the leather and meat business.

"The person with the worst luck is to be a miner..."

After listening to Felin's description, the inside of the jeep became extremely quiet, and no one spoke for a long time.

Long Yuehong watched the vehicle pass those people bit by bit, but she didn't know what she could do.

He withdrew his gaze and glanced at Shang Jianyao, only to see that his friend had a solemn look on his face.

Finally, Jiang Baimian broke the silence and repeated a word mockingly:

"noble……"

"Didn't I learn this from the 'Prime City'? After all, I am also a part of the 'Prime City'." Felin didn't care much about this.

Long Yuehong calmed down and continued to ask:

"Why are they still lining up at the door?"

He remembered Bai Chen mentioned that Weedong City was quite open and there was no entry tax.

"With so many homeless people, who knows if they are carrying any infectious diseases? At this time, we must do a basic check, otherwise we will all die together." Felin is very familiar with similar processes.

"Yeah." Long Yuehong nodded and asked, "Hey, why are there no old people..."

Before he finished speaking, he suddenly woke up:

"I see."

In such a cold season, and with lack of food and clothing, those who are a little older will definitely not be able to make it to Weed City. It is better to kill themselves and concentrate resources on future generations.

This may even include their corpses.

This realization made Long Yuehong feel uncomfortable.

Feilin then patted Long Yuehong on the shoulder:

"Hey, get used to it, this is dust.

"When the first snow falls, it will get worse."

Having said this, he looked to the north:

"I heard it's snowing over in the Black Marsh Wilderness..."

"Snow disaster..." Bai Chen, who was driving, recalled something.

Jiang Baimian immediately comforted her:

"Fortunately, Shuiwei Town no longer has to worry about these problems."

After moving slowly for a while, the convoy finally passed the inspection and entered Weed City.

Long Yuehong subconsciously looked outside and found that the roads were paved with blue or gray stone bricks, which looked very regular, but they were all a bit narrow and could only barely pass two cars.

The buildings on the roadside are not too high, only five stories at most, and the tops are all in the shape of cornices and brackets.

The ground floor is a row of rooms facing the street, which is very similar to the ruins of the city deep in the swamp.

Likewise, they all have their own signs.

Long Yuehong took a quick look and saw names such as "Time-honored Noodle House", "Axiu Non-staple Food", "Zhangji Cereals and Oils", "First City Office" and "Shooting Internet Cafe".

Even on the telephone poles beside the road, there are pieces of white paper with the words "specialized in treating difficult and complicated diseases" written on them.

In addition to these, Long Yuehong also saw many signboards written in Honghe script.

This includes words such as "restaurant," "club," and "bread."

It was only then that Long Yuehong realized that "Weed City" was part of the "Primary City" - nearly half of the pedestrians on the road were black-haired and brown-eyed, but only half. The rest have blond hair, brown hair, blue eyes, and green eyes.

Of course, because it was winter and the wind was biting, there were not many passers-by outside.

"It looks very lively." Long Yuehong said with emotion.

"That's not to mention, in the past two months, cars couldn't be driven." Felin said with a smile, "The roads here were not designed for vehicles. They are narrow and easily crushed."

"That's it..." Long Yuehong nodded and looked out the window again, just like Shang Jianyao.

On the telephone poles, various lines were pulled to different places without any plan. They looked very messy, as if they divided the sky.

As the vehicle moved forward, Long Yuehong saw another sign:

"South Street Slave Market"

Long Yuehong fell silent for a moment.