Embers Ad Infinitum

Chapter 29: Remember the past

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Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong swept around, and the two things that impressed the residents of Shuiwei Town the most were:

Everyone wears a variety of clothes, as if they came from different places, and there are many patches; the body is dirty, the hands are dirty, the face is dirty, the hair is dirty, the clothes are dirty.

In addition to these two points, fatigue, thinness, and low height are more common things.

The townspeople glanced at the outsiders and saw that Tian Erhe was also there, so they stopped paying attention and worried. They went back to their homes, or moved out of the stove, made a fire to cook, or carefully took out the grain mixed with grain chaff. Take a bowl out, pour it into the pot, or just drink cold water, and eat half of the cold wotou left at noon... The whole Shuiwei town is gradually filled with the smell of cooking smoke and food.

Tian Erhe noticed Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong's observation of the residents of the town, and asked with a smile:

"How? Do you see anything?"

Long Yuehong opened her mouth and felt that it seemed impolite to tell her impression directly, so she closed her mouth again and considered her words.

Shang Jianyao retracted his gaze and said calmly:

"Not clean."

"It's not clean... Hey." Tian Erhe laughed softly, "Compared to you, it's definitely not clean."

Although Shang Jianyao, Jiang Baimian, and others had rolled in the previous battle, and there were many mud marks and stains on their bodies, they all habitually wiped their faces when replenishing water on the way.

Without waiting for Jiang Baimian and Bai Chen to interject, Tian Erhe pointed to the middle of the square with his chin:

"Although there is no shortage of clean water in our Shuiwei town, charcoal still needs to be used sparingly. I read that excessive tree cutting will make the land less fertile. Therefore, to prevent them from cutting trees nearby, they must go a place far away.

"Occasionally you can get coal from smuggling caravans, it's like New Year's Eve, you know, there's a lot of coal in the 'White Knights'.

"Oh, it's fine in summer. You can wash it with cold water directly. In autumn, you can only endure it as much as possible. It's better to be dirty than sick. If you can't stand it, just boil a pot of water and wipe your body."

Having said that, Tian Erhe paused for a while, and his smile became complicated:

"Besides, they are busy from morning to night every day. When they can rest, who has that energy?"

Long Yuehong suddenly remembered the training of the previous two months: he and Shang Jianyao were exhausted by Jiang Baimian's training every day. After returning home, they just wanted to lie on the bed and do nothing.

However, there is a staff cafeteria inside "Pangu Biological". He and Shang Jianyao can directly take the lunch box or not at all.

"No wonder." He said aloud in understanding.

Shang Jianyao didn't say anything, and nodded silently.

Jiang Baimian glanced at him with a smile:

"I thought you would ask them why they don't use cold water in winter. It seems to be able to effectively promote blood circulation and improve their own resistance."

"The physique is too bad." Shang Jianyao replied seriously.

At this time, a member of the town guard, nicknamed "Gouzi", ran over holding the stove of Tian Erhe's house, carrying a small bag of charcoal on his back.

He was very expressive and helped start the fire, and then took the initiative to join the patrol team in charge of the surrounding area, reluctant to leave.

This is not because he is eager to get some canned braised beef, but compared with most girls in town, Bai Chen and Jiang Baimian with clean hair and faces can attract the attention of young men, especially Jiang Bai Cotton, tall and long with long legs, has been genetically modified since embryos. In the eyes of these town guard boys, he is as beautiful as a fairy, making them just want to spin around.

On the dusty soil, the relationship between men and women is not so conservative. Even if they only know each other for a few minutes, as long as they look right, they can roll off the sheets. Therefore, the members of the town guard who are patrolling and guarding the surrounding area hold their heads high. Breasts, show yourself.

Jiang Baimian glanced at them and was almost amused by them.

She ignored it, walked to the trunk of the jeep, and took out four more military cans.

"Do you want a pot? Do you want a pot? There are also bowls and chopsticks, do you want?" Tian Erhe asked with bright eyes.

"Yes, this is much more convenient than using a lunch box." Jiang Baimian didn't dislike it at all.

"Puppy! Quick, go get my pot and tableware! Count how many people there are!" Tian Erhe immediately raised his voice.

The town guard member nicknamed "Gouzi" agreed quickly, and it didn't take long for him to bring an iron-black pot with five sets of tableware and chopsticks in it.

After helping to set the pot, he took a peek at Jiang Baimian and said to Tian Erhedao in a weak tone:

"Mayor, can you please stop calling me by my nickname? I'm already twenty..."

"What's wrong? I watched your dad grow up, and I still call him by his nickname!" Tian Erhe replied with a beard, then waved his hand, "Go, go, don't disturb us. Eat, no, chat."

Shang Jianyao kept staring at the pot, and found that the bowl inside was pale blue with very delicate patterns, while the chopsticks were all ivory white without any flaws.

This is much better than the bowls and chopsticks of most of the employees of "Pangu Biology".

Tian Erhe glanced at him and said with a smile:

"What? Do you think this bowl is not big enough?"

"He thinks it's too good and too delicate." Jiang Baimian rushed to answer the question for Shang Jianyao, as if he was afraid that he would give an impolite answer.

It's not surprising that Shang Jianyao nodded, indicating that this is his own idea.

The next second, he looked at Jiang Baimian, closed his mouth tightly, and whimpered for a while.

When everyone was surprised and at a loss, he asked Jiang Baimian:

"Guess what I was trying to say?"

"...How can you guess this?" Jiang Baimian's expression was a little dull, barely keeping a smile.

"Didn't you guess right just now?" Shang Jianyao felt regretful.

Jiang Baimian took a breath and slowly exhaled:

"If it weren't for you, I'd definitely think it was mad at what just happened."

When she spoke, she was not staring at Shang Jianyao's eyes, but the top of his head, as if she wanted to come.

Tian Erhe watched them interact with a strange expression, and finally said with a smile:

"The atmosphere within you seems, seems, very relaxed and lively."

"The main reason is that his brain twitches occasionally, um, that's it." Jiang Baimian emphasized seriously, and Bai Chen nodded with a heart.

Shang Jianyao responded immediately:

"How do you know I'm not trying to liven things up on purpose?"

"... Try to keep it." Jiang Baimian grinded his teeth.

Tian Erhe laughed twice, picked up a pair of bowls and chopsticks and said:

"It's all taken back from the ruins of old world cities, where there's so much like that and not much value in itself.

"The relic hunters have traveled through mountains and rivers, who would like to go back with a backpack and a cart of dishes and chopsticks?"

Jiang Baimian listened very carefully and said with emotion:

"Indeed, there are still many things buried in the ruins of the cities of the old world. Hmm... It doesn't mean that it is worthless if it is not used at the moment."

While speaking, Jiang Baimian poured five cans into the pot.

"Mayor, before you heat up the can, can you tell us something about the old world, and what happened to you?" Jiang Baimian threw the empty shell of the can aside and diligently took the scorched yellow and black one. Ye Ziyan passed it to Tian Erhe.

Tian Erhe took the leaf smoke and lit it with the charcoal fire in the stove.

After Meimei took a sip, Tian Erhe half-squinted his eyes and said:

"My biggest wish now is to be able to smoke three times a year, and this is the second time this year."

After sighing, he looked around, showing the expression of memory:

"When the old world was destroyed, I was only in my early 10s, and I was still a, huh, elementary school student."

"My mother is a teacher in a junior high school in the city, and my father is an employee of a government unit. At that time, it was just the winter vacation, and the weather was a little colder than it should be now, maybe more than a little bit, I can't remember the reason, it may be that the junior high school holiday was more cold. It was late, and my dad got busier as the end of the year approached, and no one at home took care of me, so they took advantage of the weekend and sent me to my grandpa's house, which is in the village not far from Shuiwei Town.

"I remember very clearly, they said that in eight days, they would come and pick me up with my grandfather and grandmother back to the city for Chinese New Year.

"Heh, I was wild at that time, running around in the village, but every night I still felt homesick and looked at the calendar. After counting how many days left, my parents and my mother would come to pick me up.

"On the morning of the penultimate day, a few friends and I wanted to go fishing by the river, but the adults blocked it, so we could only go near the shallow creek to play. Then, when we heard the sound of the explosion, it felt like the whole ground was full of water. shaking.

"I was terrified, I just wanted to go back to my grandpa's house and never go out again.

"The explosion came one after another, getting more and more violent. Cough, cough, I even think it was accompanied by a very high-level earthquake."

While Shang Jianyao, Long Yuehong, Jiang Baimian and others were listening intently, Tian Erhe stretched out his hand to roast the fire and continued to recall:

"There was a section in the middle, I fainted for some reason, maybe I was caught by the air wave generated by the explosion, anyway, I woke up without any injuries.

"After I woke up, I continued to run back and saw that my grandfather's house collapsed... They didn't have time to run out...

"At that time, my grandfather and grandmother were much younger than I am now, raising chickens, growing vegetables, and doing everything.

"Cough, let's not talk about this. At that time, there were many people living in the village. I followed those uncles, aunts, grandparents and grandparents all the way to the town. There are still many intact houses in the town, but we didn't choose, we chose Here, because of the open space, you can temporarily live in a tent without worrying about the collapse of the house.

"At that time, the communication was also cut off, and there was no signal. Everyone just waited here, waiting for rescue, waiting for help, but unfortunately, we didn't wait until..."

Tian Erhe's voice gradually became lower, and it seems that until now, he still remembers the initial fear and despair.

"There are a few uncles and aunts who don't want to wait any longer. They went to the supermarket, went to some people's homes, collected some food, and tried to leave Shuiwei Town and go to the city. I, I followed them, hoping to return to my dad. Beside my mother, don't laugh, this is a very instinctive choice of a child.

"We drove for a while, crawled over the broken road, and after a long walk, we finally reached the city.

"Here, here, even more terrifying..."

Tian Erhe's eyes gradually lost focus.

It was as if he had fallen into a nightmare from which he could never escape.