Long Yuehong opened her mouth and seemed to want to persuade:
"...Alright."
Shang Jianyao sat for a while, put on the plate, walked to the exit, and handed all the things in his hand to the canteen staff on duty there.
Outside the "Material Supply Market", fluorescent lamps scattered from the ceiling in an orderly interval, illuminating the road to the rest of the floor, employees of different ages and genders gathered in twos and threes, or went to the "Activity Center" ”, or returning home together, or watching the children run and play.
Shang Jianyao walked between them, quickly left Area C, crossed a street with graffiti on the walls, and entered Area B, where the rooms were denser.
In most of the "living area" of this underground building, there is no concept of architecture, and employees live in rooms, not houses. Many work in the "inner eco-zone", and people who have seen real hives often compare themselves to this.
However, the aisles in the rows of rooms are wide, paved with creamy white smooth stone bricks, and can accommodate at least five or six people side by side.
This is mandated by the company and is said to be in order to deal with certain emergencies and avoid congestion at critical moments.
Shang Jianyao walked for a while and saw the room that belonged to him.
It has no difference in appearance from the rooms on the left and right and opposite. The walls are pure black with a certain degree of reflection, and it looks a bit deep.
The only thing that allows Shang Jianyao to confirm that this room belongs to him is the white number on the door:
"Number 196".
No. 196, Block B, Floor 495.
Shang Jianyao put his hand into his trouser pocket, took out a brass-colored key, inserted it into the lock of the same color, and twisted it gently.
In the sound of clicking, Shang Jianyao pressed the doorknob with his other hand, pushed it forward, and opened the door.
The door stopped halfway open, because the back of it was against Shang Jianyao's stove.
This is a room that is two meters wide, three meters deep, and four meters high. A wooden bed that can barely allow Shang Jianyao to straighten his legs when he sleeps is placed on the innermost side. There is only a gap between the foot of the bed and the wall. to a gap of 10 cm. Of course, no furniture can be placed here, but there are expansion screws embedded in the wall, and two sets of clothes in monotonous colors and simple styles are hung on the wall.
Next to them, separated by half a piece of plastic film is a separate washbasin, and on the other side of the washbasin is a stove with a fume pipe above and a cabinet below.
For the existence of these two supporting facilities, Shang Jianyao has always been very satisfied, because not all rooms will have them.
This underground building really has too many floors and too many people. No matter the elevator, or the ventilation system, the sewer system, and the energy supply system, they are all facing terrible tests. Therefore, not only the elevator has many parts, but some are in Different areas can only lead to certain floors, and the ventilation system and sewer system are also divided into subsystems, each 15 floors or a specific number of floors, sharing a subsystem.
In this way, even if there is a failure, it will only affect a part of the area, and will not cause the overall collapse.
Among them, in order to stabilize the sewer system, only a small part of the large number of rooms built by the company are connected to the pipeline.
Many employees had to queue outside the public toilets in their “neighborhoods” to wash up, and many floors in the living quarters were very cold at night and early in the morning when energy supply was low.
It is the dream of many employees to be able to wash themselves in a quilt without going out.
On the other side of the door, under the four-pane window, there is a fairly sturdy red lacquered wooden table with many books stacked on it, a black absorbent pen and a bottle of ink of the same color.
At this time, the light of the "street lamps" on the street ceiling passed through the window and sprinkled on the table, making the text on the surface of the book barely visible.
If it is not exactly between the two fluorescent lamps, the lighting effect is not good, and businessmen can read through the street lamps without wasting energy quotas.
The wooden table has its own cabinet, and behind it is a back chair with many mottled marks painted with brown-red paint. Behind the back chair are two stools that are about to fall apart, as if they are supporting the so-called "living room".
After this "living room" is the horizontal wooden bed.
Shang Jianyao didn't turn on the lights in the room, because he didn't have much energy ration, so he had to use it sparingly.
After pulling out the key and closing the door, Shang Jianyao walked through the area illuminated by the street lights and walked to the dark bedside.
He picked up the pillow stuffed with grain husks, put it upright against the wall, then leaned on it, half lying and half sitting.
Under such a posture, Shang Jianyao saw the electric frying pan and rice cooker placed on the stove at a glance.
They are rusted and appear to have been used for many, many years.
Since Shang Jianyao has memories, they have been in his own home: one was brought back from a city ruins in the old world by his father when he participated in the "Ministry of Security"'s external operations. The other loot was from Shang Jianyao's mother, who had accumulated contribution points for a long time after getting married, and exchanged them from the small market—the new products in the "Material Supply Market" would be much more expensive, and the supply was always in short supply.
This room was not the home in Shang Jianyao's memory. He remembered that his original home was at No. 28, Area A, on this floor. There were two rooms, one large and one small, with a very narrow bathroom.
This made Shang Jianyao not have to go to the public toilet to line up when he was a child, and he didn't have to smell the strong odor.
However, after his father disappeared and his mother died, the suite was taken back by the company and reassigned to eligible employees. Now this suite was newly assigned when he was admitted to the university and left the orphanage.
In order to save energy, these later rooms were not equipped with electronic locks, but used various ordinary locks removed from the relics of the old world cities. In addition, the internal factory also produced some.
Shang Jianyao's eyes moved randomly, and he looked at the wooden table by the window.
He heard from his mother that when she and her father first got married, his father bought wood from the "material supply market" and made it by himself.
This wooden table and the clothes that Shang Jianyao's mother sewed in the cabinet below it, together with the two electrical appliances, were returned to him after being entrusted by the orphanage for three years.
However, Shang Jianyao can no longer wear those clothes in the closet.
Shang Jianyao closed his eyes, raised his right hand, and pinched his left and right temples.
He immediately put down his palms and kept his current posture, no more movement.
The whole room became unusually quiet, and the dimness seemed to be getting worse.
Shang Jianyao was lying there, as if he had fallen into a deep sleep.
…
Shang Jianyao opened his eyes and saw a wide and empty hall without any accident.
This is bigger than the entire "supply market".
The hall was surrounded by black walls that shone with metallic luster and gave a cold feeling. The top was dark, and the top could not be seen, and I did not know how high it was.
In this darkness, there are countless bright spots of light, and they slowly rotate, seeming to form a dreamy river sprinkled with diamonds.
Shang Jianyao was once again shocked by this scene, unable to describe the situation in front of him in words.
He could only think of the starry sky pictures that the teacher showed everyone on the monitor when he first entered the university.
It was the first time he saw the stars.
And now, he seemed to be among the stars.
In the center of the hall, "starlight" scattered, condensed into a blurred figure.
The figure spread out its hands, maintaining strict symmetry, as if imitating a scale.
The voice of "his" sounded hollow and echoed throughout the hall, as if to convey the revelation given by "the stars":
"One price, three gifts."
"One price, three gifts..."