Embers Ad Infinitum

Chapter 33: first point

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In the sound of reading aloud in Shuiwei Town, Long Yuehong opened her mouth, but she didn't know what to say. She felt that the feeling was extremely complicated and difficult to describe in words.

None of the four said a word, and seemed to be listening intently until the jeep pulled out of the gate and headed into the distance.

"What did they read aloud? I didn't hear it very clearly." Jiang Baimian glanced at the rearview mirror with a slightly annoyed tone.

"The bright moonlight in front of the bed." Shang Jianyao repeated the beginning of "Silent Night Thoughts".

"Is that so..." Jiang Baimian sighed for a while, but didn't say any more words.

She drives carefully, keeping the Jeep quiet on the hard-to-find roads that criss-cross the swamp.

After he was completely out of this area, Bai Chen looked ahead and said to himself:

"Part of the reason I wanted to be a full member of the company was so I could borrow a lot of books."

"It's okay..." Long Yuehong, who has lived in "Pangu Creature" since childhood, doesn't think it's anything special, "In the ruins of the old world, there are no books or libraries?"

Bai Chen's eyes seem to be far away:

"Yes, in the beginning, there were many, but at that time, I was not born yet.

"Later, many books were removed by major forces and some people, and the remaining parts were used as firewood that was easily ignited by relic hunters and wilderness wanderers, and were bitten and torn by animals such as mice, making them look bad. Only Very few can be found and able to read.

"There may still be a lot of books in the ruins of cities that have not been explored much, but those places are too dangerous."

After a short silence, Shang Jianyao asked with a jumping thought:

"Are you literate?"

"Well, my father and mother taught me. After they died, they left me a very good teacher." Bai Chen's expression gradually softened, and the corners of his mouth were slightly raised.

But her eyes were a little scattered, as if she was sitting on her knees after waking up from a dream in the middle of the night, looking out the window without focus.

Jiang Baimian glanced sideways at Bai Chen and continued to stare ahead.

She smiled and said:

"Can you talk a little louder

"Is this bullying my hearing? I wonder if you guys are talking bad about me behind my back."

Long Yuehong's heart moved, and she whispered:

"We all said it in front of you."

"We all said it in front of you." At the same time, Shang Jianyao responded to Jiang Baimian's "accusation".

Long Yuehong suddenly felt a little happy:

"Haha, how is it? Do I understand you very well? I can keep up with your ideas!"

"How do you know that I didn't let you follow me on purpose?" Shang Jianyao didn't give in.

"Yes, you should pay attention to the atmosphere of the team when you go out to practice. It must be serious and lively. Otherwise, the spirit will easily become too tense, and it will not take long for you to overwhelm yourself." Jiang Baimian commented casually, "Okay, Let’s not talk about that, let’s discuss Mayor Tian’s experience and see what useful things can be concluded from the details he described, er, mainly about the destruction of the old world.”

Shang Jianyao seemed to have thought about it for a long time, and immediately said:

"The 'mindless' are mainly found in larger cities, with little to no in villages and small towns."

"The destruction of villages and small towns looks more like a combination of war and geological catastrophe," Bai Chen added.

Jiang Baimian nodded slightly:

"War and geological cataclysm may be equated.

"Before the destruction of the old world, there may have been geological weapons. Of course, this has yet to be confirmed. It needs to be confirmed by exploring the ruins of some cities to find corresponding information."

Hearing this, Long Yuehong pondered and said:

"What does the appearance of the 'Heartless' have to do with war

"Did their appearance lead to war, or did war induce their appearance?"

"There is no way to answer this, because there is not enough information and intelligence." Jiang Baimian smiled and said, "This will be the main direction of our work after the old tune group."

She looked down the road, pulled the steering wheel, continued to ask questions, and guided the team members to think:

"Why do you think the 'unintentional' were primarily found in big cities at first, and almost absent in villages and small towns?"

"Cities are more densely populated? Is this an important transmission condition?" Shang Jianyao replied in combination with the definition of cities in the textbook.

Bai Chen said from another angle:

"Cities are more important, so that's the main goal?"

"It's possible." Jiang Baimian did not deny it.

The four of them discussed the corresponding issues for a while. Although they could not come to a conclusion, they all broadened their thinking and had a clearer idea of the investigation and data to be collected in the future.

When the jeep was not driving too fast or too slow, Jiang Baimian threw another question:

"What do you think of the guy the ruin hunters are looking for

"It's the one with black hair and golden eyes that the townspeople of Shuiwei Town have encountered."

Long Yuehong hissed:

"It feels weird to him, not only from a mysterious origin, but also weird in itself.

"Normally, no one can win the love of a group of people at the same time when they meet for the first time, but there are men and women!"

"Actually, I'm a little curious about what he looks like and how charming he is." Jiang Baimian replied with a smile, "However, you're right, it's really quite strange. For people who can create strange phenomena , my first reaction was to be classified into the ranks of the Awakened."

"Why?" Shang Jianyao blurted out.

Bai Chen didn't show any doubts about the term Awakened, and he obviously knew that such a person existed.

Jiang Baimian slightly released the accelerator and lowered the speed a bit:

"In addition to having weird and terrifying abilities, the awakened people may also show strange and different things from normal people. Well, this kind of performance is the same as their abilities, and the probability of being the same with each other is not too high."

"Such an awakened person appeared in the black marsh wilderness, definitely not just for survival." Bai Chen looked out the window and looked into the depths of the swamp, "He may be looking for something... There may be a lot of secrets hidden in the depths of the swamp. "

Jiang Baimian nodded:

"Indeed. Forget it, let's not talk about it, our route will not pass north of Yuelu Station. Besides, it is too dangerous to take two newbies to participate in this obviously unusual thing, so we can only find a chance to report it to company.

"Long Yuehong, Bai Chen, you can rest for a while.

"Ah, ha, Bai Chen, don't rush to sleep, tell me how to go next..."

"..." Bai Chen glanced at Jiang Baimian, doubting whether this was the very reliable team leader from before.

In this way, the jeep drove through the black marsh wilderness, and when it was almost noon, it stopped at a concrete intersection overgrown with weeds.

"This is the first point of this field training." Jiang Baimian opened the door and went out, pointing to the left of the jeep.

Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong got out of the car, followed the team leader's fingers and looked over.

There was a sloping fork in the road, and the concrete floor was cracked by clumps of weeds and plants, and there was almost no intact place.

The left side of the road was originally suspected to be a field, but most of it has been swallowed up by the swamp, and many different species of plants have grown in the rest of the road; on the right side, there are three buildings enclosing an open square, one of which has collapsed, and the remaining one has collapsed. are covered with creepers and other plants.

There is a large square at the end of the road. On both sides of the square are more four-, five-, and six-story buildings, but there is also a very large and fairly high bungalow.

They also collapsed in part, and the rest were mixed with green, indistinguishable from each other.

At the end of the square, there were two iron-black gates that could pass four jeeps in parallel.

In the back of these houses, where Shang Jianyao and others could not see, several brick red or gray-black "chimneys" rose from the ground and rose into the air, which was quite spectacular.

Their outer walls are inlaid with iron-black, very crude stairs. The higher the height, the sparser the greenery in the crevices.

After Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong observed for a while, Jiang Baimian explained:

"In the future, our group will inevitably enter the ruins of cities in the old world, especially the ones that few people go to, or the ones that have not yet been discovered, which will be quite dangerous.

"So, you have to adapt to this kind of place in advance and accumulate some experience."

"But this doesn't look like a city." Long Yuehong couldn't help saying.

Jiang Baimian laughed:

"Definitely start with the lowest difficulty.

"This used to be a steel factory. The kind with a complete social structure inside is equivalent to a miniature city. You see, the buildings on the side of the road are hospitals and radio stations.

"Well, this place has been visited many times by the relic hunters, and the valuable things are basically gone.

"There are two main tasks for you today:

"One is to get some food here, whether it's to find something that others haven't found, or to target the beasts that haunt here.

"The second is to draw a complete map, marking all the key points.

"How is it, easy?"

Neither Shang Jianyao nor Long Yuehong answered, because based on their experience, they could not judge whether it was easy or difficult.

Jiang Baimian glanced at the steel factory again:

"There are often relic hunters here. If you encounter them, you must learn how to deal with them, how to get along, and how to exchange information and materials."

"Team leader, didn't you say that the valuable things here are basically gone? What are those relic hunters doing?" Long Yuehong asked a question in surprise.

Jiang Baimian laughed and said:

"Isn't there a saying? There are still three pounds of nails in a rotten boat, not to mention such a big steel factory

"If you don't get anything elsewhere, come here and look for something useful. Maybe you can move back to something useful.

"Remain hunters dug up the ground before, took down a section of the main water pipe, and then pulled it back to exchange for some food."

Seeing Long Yuehong and Shang Jianyao nodding lightly, saying that there is no doubt, Jiang Baimian turned his body and said:

"Then let's start.

"Bai Chen and I are watching the car here. If you have trouble that you can't solve, send a signal for help. If you need guidance, go back within two kilometers and use the walkie-talkie."