Embers Ad Infinitum

Chapter 27: Shuiwei Town

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Bai Chen immediately slowed down the speed of the heavy motorcycle and looked up.

A hundred meters away, there was a reddish-brown wall, which stretched to both sides as much as possible, and turned to the back at the end of Bai Chen's line of sight, as if to close together.

Most of the bricks in this wall are mottled and old, but there are also a few that look new, as if they had been fired within the last year.

Rusty barbed wire was pulled on the top and outside of the wall, and there was only one road to pass through.

Between the barbed wire and the wall, and on several wooden stands erected behind the wall, there are guards with dirty clothes and disorderly styles patrolling with guns.

The one who warned Bai Chen was the guard standing on the highest wooden frame. He was wearing a yellow and hard shirt inside, and he was wrapped in a navy blue, padded jacket, and bloated clothes that looked very fluffy.

The guard carried an automatic rifle and held a pen-like black object in his hand.

This item emitted red light, which shone in front of Bai Chen, forming a small spot.

Bai Chen stopped his motorcycle, took off his helmet, and tried to pull back his short hair just past his ears.

She is deliberately showing her female identity.

This is not to charm or seduce someone, but to let the other person relax a little and be less nervous.

She knew very well that on top of the dust, in a place where there was not much order, even if guns could bring the harm of men and women to the same level, it could not really close the gap between the two sides in this regard.

Men are more dangerous than women, both physically and aggressively.

A stranger is far more terrifying than a woman.

In the years when Bai Chen was wandering in the wilderness, she always showed two different states: when she needed to explore ruins, go hunting in the wild, pass through more dangerous areas, and trade with certain robber groups, she would hide her long hair, She blackened her face, changed her outfit, and made herself look like a man; when she approached a settlement with a certain order, or dealt with a relic hunter from a big power who cared more about intelligence and old world data, she would show her female identity.

When she was absorbed by the "Pangu Creatures" and had the confidence, she could finally cut a hairstyle that was equal to her ears, neither long nor short according to her liking.

After putting the helmet in front of him, Bai Chen let the heavy motorcycle move forward slowly.

During this process, the red light spot was always shaking in front of her, falling on her motorcycle from time to time. This means that the other party has aimed and is not careless.

When the distance between the two sides narrowed to 30 meters, Bai Chen leaned on the motorcycle, put one foot on the ground, and shouted loudly:

"I'm here to find Mayor Tian Erhetian!"

She repeated it twice, stopped talking, and waited patiently.

The guards on the wooden frame separated one, and pedaled down along the inclined plank.

Five or six minutes later, an old man appeared on the wall.

He wore a furry dark blue hat, as if a bowl had been buckled upside down on his head.

He has very obvious white hair on his temples, sunken eye sockets, and a thin face. There are wrinkles in the places where wrinkles can appear, and he looks very old.

However, his dark brown eyes are still bright, and his spirit can be called vigorous. It is Tian Erhe, the mayor of this settlement.

He was wearing a white and yellowed T-shirt, a crumpled suit full of patches, and an army green coat that was too large and long to fit his figure.

The lower part of his body is dark yellow woolen trousers, and he doesn't know how many other trousers are stuffed inside, which looks very bloated.

Tian Erhe looked at Xiang Baichen and carefully distinguished for a few seconds.

"Ah..." He seemed to recognize the other party, but when he wanted to say hello, he found that Bai Chen was too far away, and he couldn't shout as casually as before.

He quickly turned his head and said angrily to the guard next to him:

"Give me my horn!

"Really, not smart at all!"

The guard responded aggrievedly:

"Your speaker has long been dead, and the battery of the same type has not been replaced recently.

"I, I can shout for you..."

Tian Erhe thought about it and said:

"Help me shout: Bai girl, where did you die this year? I thought you were eaten by beasts!"

"Baby girl..." The guard suddenly realized, "Is that Bai Chen who came here often before?"

"Who else could it be if she wasn't? I'm in my 70s, and my eyes are getting worse and worse. I can recognize it. How can you look like a blind man in your early twenties?" Tian Erhe glanced at the guard. , cursed twice.

Everyone in this settlement has become accustomed to Tian Erhe's temper. The guard didn't care about the scolding just now, just muttered a few words:

"She looks much better than before... I can't tell if you don't look carefully..."

Without waiting for Tian Erhe to stare at him, the guard opened his throat and shouted loudly:

"Baby girl, where did you die this year? I thought you were eaten by a beast!"

Bai Chen's expression softened unconsciously, and she responded loudly:

"Go somewhere else.

"Mayor, let me change something!"

This place is called "Shuiwei Town". Bai Chen heard from Tian Erhe that the name of the town comes from the fact that it was surrounded by four waters before the destruction of the old world.

After the destruction of the old world, long-term dogfights, and multiple geological disasters, the nearby water flow has become part of the Great Swamp, which provides a natural defensive wall for the town of Shuiwei, bringing enough concealment.

Only the residents of Shuiwei Township and their once-invited guests can find those seemingly silt-covered roads within the Great Swamp and arrive here in a labyrinth-like environment.

Compared with those settlements that often move, Shuiwei Town, which has clean water sources and a lot of arable land, has been here since the destruction of the old world.

Tian Erhe wanted to talk a few words loudly, but before he really spoke, his throat was already itchy, and he couldn't help coughing twice.

"Come in, come in." He waved his hand helplessly.

The guard next to him immediately shouted:

"Come in! Come in!

"Give the gun to the guy at the door!"

Snapped! Tian Erhe patted him:

"Who asked you to add that last sentence

"Bai girl is someone you can trust!"

"But she hasn't been here for a year." The guard responded with a stubborn neck.

Tian Erhe was silent for two seconds, without saying anything, turned and walked off the wooden frame.

Bai Chen did not resist, and handed over the guns, pistols on his shoulders, and the heavy motorcycle to the guards at the gate.

The iron-black door that was open to the side opened immediately.

Tian Erhe was already waiting there, looked up and down at Bai Chen, and said with a smile:

"It seems that things have been going well recently. I used to be a mud girl."

Bai Chen instinctively closed his eyes:

"A team took me in."

Tian Erhe nodded thoughtfully:

"Not bad."

He did not continue the topic, and asked casually:

"What about your robot? Call, call the 35 one."

Bai Chen's eyes dropped slightly, and he said after a second:

"broken."

Tian Erhe fell silent for a while.

After a few seconds, he took a breath and asked as if nothing had been communicated just now:

"What do you want in exchange?"

"Some parts from the car..." Bai Chen replied with a normal expression.

"Stop! Don't tell me what it is, I don't understand it either. I'll show you directly and pick it up." Tian Erhe interrupted Bai Chen's words with a smile.

He turned around and led Bai Chen to the depths of the town.

This town is not big, and it is completely different from the town in the old world concept.

Bai Chen glanced at it, and the first thing he saw was three three-story buildings in the distance. The buildings were not high, but very long, and each floor was separated by many rooms.

The three houses are not parallel, but are inverted and slanted with the word "pin".

As far as Bai Chen knows, those who live here and have private or floor toilets are all members of the town guard and their families. At the same time, people with important skills can also be assigned rooms, such as those who know how to repair firearms. For example, those who have mastered old world agricultural techniques.

On both sides of the word "pin", there are two large public toilets, one vertical and one horizontal; in front of the word "pin" is a small square made of cement, and outside the small square are three small squares side by side with rammed earth as the bottom.

There are a row of bungalows on the left and right of the square. They are not far from the fence. They belong to the original townspeople of Shuiwei Town. With the population base of Shuiwei Town, most of the townspeople have members of the town guard, otherwise it will not be enough to maintain the town guard.

Above the four squares, there are countless, chaotically built houses towering there, including mud houses, brick houses, and tents.

These buildings come from the wilderness wanderers absorbed by Shuiwei Town over the years, or those who violated the law among the original members.

At this time, the sun was still in the sky, and the evening was far in the future. Some residents of Shuiwei Town were still working in the fields behind the town, while the other part went out hunting in small groups. Only a few people stayed in the town.

They walked out of the densely packed houses and cast their gazes from behind the glass panes. What they have in common is that their faces are not very clean, their hair is dry and oily, their clothes are not complete, and they may not match their body shapes, but their eyes are bigger than Bai Chen's. Wild wanderers encountered elsewhere are more divine.

"Mayor, you, how is your health recently?" Bai Chen didn't care about other people's attention, opened his mouth, and asked not too skillfully.

Tian Erhe laughed at himself and said:

"It's alright, but I'm getting more and more afraid of the cold. You see, the winter has not yet arrived, so I have to wear so much. Oh, I don't know if I can survive this winter."

"Definitely." Bai Chen followed Tian Erhe and walked along the road between the cluttered houses to the three buildings in the shape of Pinzi.

She answered very firmly, but her tone was a little erratic.

"Don't console me." Tian Erhe stroked his chin with the remaining white beard residue, "I'm already seventy-seven! How many people who have experienced the destruction of the old world can live to this age? Besides, I My children are gone, even if I wait a few more years and I really find a new world, it means nothing to me. Hey, if Nan Nan is still alive, he should be about the same age as you..."

"... At least take a look at the new world." Bai Chen said after a while of silence.

Out of the corner of her eye, she glanced at the chaotically built houses around, and saw plastic bottles, glass bottles, old cardboard, buttons, rags, parts from nowhere, long or short cables piled up by their doorways and windows. , metal bottle caps, handles with incomplete buttons, cracked mirror cases, bullet casings, scopes, rusted glasses frames, etc., are like garbage dumps and recycling stations.

Tian Erhe sighed with a "ha":

"The new world... who knows where...

"Young people can be trusted, at least have hope, we old guys, forget it."