Embers Ad Infinitum

Chapter 125: Weed City

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At early 9:00 the next morning, Bai Chen drove a camouflaged jeep, carrying three other members of the "Old Tune Team" and the head of the "Rootless" camp, Fei Lin, followed by a group of five or six vehicles. The caravan headed towards Weed City.

I don’t know if it’s because of rushing work or trying to be real, the color of the repainted Jeep is not very harmonious in many places, but it can be seen that it is generally army green camouflage.

It's very similar to most jeeps that run on dirt - once they get bumped, they either have nowhere to fix it, or just fix it casually, not so much.

The reason why Fei Lin didn't take the car of his business group was because he felt that when he arrived in Wild Grass City, he would be separated from his good brother Shang Jianyao, and he had to hurry up and talk for a while.

This caused three big men to be squeezed abruptly in the rear of the Jeep. Fortunately, this car is spacious and will not affect the riding experience.

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

water plant.

Surrounded by greenery, it is quite nice and appears to be well "cared for".

After passing through the water plant, a city ruin gradually unfolded in front of all the members of the "Old Tune Group".

Almost all the high-rise buildings here have collapsed, or gray or brown "mud blocks" and stubborn rusted steel bars are piled up in a mess, covered by withered ivy leaves and various plants, only faintly revealed part.

It was like countless people who were buried alive, finally reaching out their hands before they died, trying to grab something.

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

Even the relic hunters have given up here.

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

If he had never entered the depths of the swamp and had never seen the silhouette of the old world, Long Yuehong would at most sigh at such a scene, but now, his mood is extremely complicated, both inexplicably heavy and sad.

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

Fei Lin sat between Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong, looking out the window and said:

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

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

Shang Jianyao didn't answer Fei Lin's words, and said abruptly:

"I want to play a song."

"Remember the song from the past?" Jiang Baimian asked rhetorically.

Business see Yao heavy head:

"right."

"Forget it, it will affect the mood." Jiang Baimian waved his hand, "This road is already difficult to drive, so don't disturb Bai Chen."

In this completely abandoned city ruins, due to the collapse of buildings and the subsidence of the ground, many roads are either buried or interrupted, making it impossible to pass. Vehicles can only constantly change their routes and move forward little by little.

Fortunately, whether it is Bai Chen, Fei Lin, or the "rootless people" who led the way, they are all familiar with this place, so they won't get lost.

"I'm really grateful to those relic hunters who got rid of all the cars stuck on the road. Otherwise, it would be a waste of time to go around the ruins of the city." Jiang Baimian sighed sincerely during this process.

"This is also due to us." Fei Lin smiled and stroked the gray beard around his mouth, "Our business group got a lot of cars from here, and now they are all grandfathers."

During the chat, the convoy took more than an hour to slowly pass through the most severely damaged area of the city. The road conditions gradually improved. In front of you, you could even see a road in mid-air supported by giant gray-white pillars, which was unusually empty. The damage marks are not very obvious, but there are many withered weeds.

After another unknown time, the convoy arrived next to the "Zhuo River".

The running water here is tumbling a yellowish color, and it seems to be mixed with a lot of sediment.

Since it is winter, many places in the riverbed have been directly exposed to the air and are full of silt.

Obliquely ahead of the convoy, a medium-sized bridge supported by a pair of piers spanned the two banks.

After waiting for this new bridge, and driving forward for another ten minutes, a gray and white city wall more than ten meters high came into the eyes of everyone.

"That's Weed City." Fei Lin introduced.

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

He remembered that it was written in the textbook that the cities of the old world were no longer the same as in the old days, and they had to build tall and strong city walls, at most schools and other places. For the convenience of management, a circle of low walls would be built.

If it was made after the destruction of the old world, what a huge project!

Flynn smiled and said:

"This is the accessory of the ruined city just now.

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

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

Flynn gave a "hmm":

"I heard that at the earliest, when many survivors were preparing to build settlements, they considered the previous ruins, but the damage there was too serious, and there was a city wall here, with its own water plant, and it was close to the hydroelectric power station. "

Having said that, he laughed and said:

"Although the city wall can't prevent cannons and bombs, it can at least block beasts, monsters and 'unintentional' people, so that everyone can feel more secure."

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

There is a bit of congestion here, and the speed of the Jeep is very slow.

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

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

Most of these people are young and middle-aged men and women, followed by children, and none of them are elderly.

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

"This is?" Long Yuehong looked back at Fei Lin.

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

He quickly sat down again and sighed:

"These are all wild wanderers who don't have any food for winter. They come to Wild Grass City to try their luck."

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

Flynn laughed self-deprecatingly:

"The ones with the best luck are taken in or bought by the 'Hunter Guild' and cultivated as a direct descendant.

"The one with the second-best luck is favored by the nobles and becomes a slave.

"Anything worse, was taken to the surrounding manors to be a serf.

"I'm not very lucky, I was bought back by the skin and meat business.

"The worst luck is to be a miner..."

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

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

He retracted his gaze and glanced at Shang Jianyao, only to see this friend's face solemn.

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

"Nobles..."

"Didn't this learn from the 'First City'? After all, he is also a part of the 'First City'." Fehling didn't care much about this.

Long Yuehong packed up her mood and continued to ask:

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

He remembered that Bai Chen had mentioned that Weed City was quite open and had no city entry tax.

"There are so many homeless people, who knows if they are carrying any infectious diseases? At this time, a basic inspection must be done, otherwise everyone will be finished together." Fei Lin is quite familiar with similar procedures.

"Well." Long Yuehong nodded and turned to ask, "Hey, why aren't there any old people..."

Before he finished speaking, he suddenly woke up:

"I understand."

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

This might even include their bodies.

This kind of cognition made Long Yuehong uncomfortable for a while.

Fei Lin immediately patted Long Yuehong on the shoulder:

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

"It will get worse when the first snow falls."

Having said that, he looked north:

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

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

Jiang Baimian immediately comforted her:

"Fortunately, Shuiwei Town doesn't have to worry about these problems."

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

Long Yuehong looked out subconsciously, and found that the road was paved with cyan or gray-white stone bricks, which looked very neat, but they were all narrow and could barely pass two cars.

The buildings on the side of the road are not too high, only five stories at most, and the tops are all in the shape of flying eaves and bucket arches.

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.

Again, they all have their own signs.

At a glance, Long Yuehong saw names such as "Time-honored Noodle House", "Axiu Non-staple Food", "Zhangji Grain and Oil", "First City Office" and "Shooting Internet Cafe".

Even on the telephone poles beside the road, there are sheets of white paper with the words "specializing in intractable diseases" written on them.

In addition to these, Long Yuehong also saw a lot of signs written in Honghe script.

This includes words like "restaurant", "club", "bread", etc.

It was not until this time that Long Yuehong deeply realized that "Wild Grass City" was part of "First 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 too many passers-by outside.

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

"That's not enough. For the past two months, the car has not been able to drive." Fei Lin said with a smile, "The road here was not originally designed for vehicles, and it is narrow and easily crushed."

"Is that so..." 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 planning, which seemed very chaotic, as if dividing the sky.

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

"South Street Slave Market"

Long Yuehong was silent for a while.