Luo Yuan walked out of the registration room in a somewhat embarrassed manner.
The pleasant long-legged receptionists waiting at the door glanced up and down their bodies with their beautiful eyes like autumn water, and then quickly looked away, no longer interested in looking at him.
Luo Yuan smiled mockingly to himself, took Master Wang who had been waiting outside, and walked towards his car. He took out his mobile phone and prepared to make a call and meet with Wang Xiaguang. As a result, I didn’t expect that my phone had already run out of power and shut down. Apparently Huang Jiahui's previous phone call had exhausted the last bit of power from the electrical panel.
Luo Yuan looked depressed and put his phone back into his pocket. It seemed that he could only contact him later.
He and Wang Shishi sat in the car and waited for an hour, but Huang Jiahui still didn't come back. Luo Yuan didn't want to wait any longer. She probably wouldn't come back!
He started the car and drove towards the city.
Unlike Donghu City, which is like a dead city, the entire Hedong City is filled with a weird vitality. It's not that he has never been to Donghe City, but now this city is completely different from the leisure and tourist city in his impression. He remembered that this place should be a bustling commercial street, but now the buildings here have been bulldozed and replaced by a heavily guarded large-scale heavy industrial area. The sound of various machines colliding inside is deafening, even if you don't see it, it is shocking. It feels hot inside.
He actually passed several industrial areas like this along the way.
There were very few pedestrians on the road, but there was no feeling of panic. Instead, there was a sense of peace before troubled times.
Luo Yuan miraculously found a real estate agency near a residential area. He quickly parked the car. What he needed most now was a place to stay.
As soon as he walked into the store, a middle-aged man dressed very smartly greeted him enthusiastically: "My name is Chen Baoqiang. Sir, are you renting or buying a house?"
Luo Yuan refused the middle-aged man's move to pour tea and said straight to the point: "I want to rent a house with two bedrooms and one living room. I wonder if you have one here?"
"Yes, yes, of course there is. Our agency has collected more than twenty sets, how about... go take a look now?" Chen Baoqiang said a little anxiously.
Luo Yuan nodded.
"Okay, wait for me." A hint of joy flashed across Chen Baoqiang's face. He took out a contract and quickly closed and locked the iron sliding door in the store.
"Why, you're the only one in your company?" Luo Yuan looked at his locking action and said strangely.
"Haha, I am making you laugh. I am both the boss of the company and the only employee." Chen Baoqiang said with a wry smile: "You also know the current situation. In the past, most of our business was done by migrant workers, but now these people have already returned to their hometowns. The business is getting less and less, but the number of houses received is getting more and more. Now I can only make ends meet and starve to death. "
Luo Yuan felt a little sympathetic to him: "By the way, is there electricity in the residential area?"
"You just came to Hedong City. There used to be electricity here, but seven days ago, it started to run out." Chen Baoqiang shook his head and explained: "It's the same in every community? Now power is given priority to industries! "
"Isn't there a Hedong Bay Nuclear Power Plant next to Hedong City? How could there be no power?" Luo Yuan asked suspiciously. Hedongwan Nuclear Power Plant is the first nuclear power plant in Jiangnan Province, and he has visited there before.
"It's just a small nuclear power plant. What can it do? It's not even enough to supply the entire Hedong City. Part of the power has to be transmitted from the Three Gorges Hydropower Station. But now there seems to be a problem at the Three Gorges. Anyway, there is no power."
He was shocked. Once there was a problem in the Three Gorges, the impact would be devastating. This means that the entire most developed regions in China will fall into a terrible situation without electricity. When he thought that even the Three Gorges, a key national strategic protection unit, had problems, and that other hydropower stations might not be spared either, he felt his scalp numb.
But this was just a guess after all, and Luo Yuan quickly cut off his thoughts.
Chen Baoqiang did not have a car, so Master Wang had to sit on Luo Yuan's lap again.
Chen Baoqiang looked at the blushing Master Wang and complimented: "This is your sister, she is so beautiful!"
After these days of nourishing with light blue meat, Wang Shishi's originally thin and pale cheeks have become rosy and delicate, and you can tell at a glance that he is a beautiful woman.
"Yes!" Luo Yuan responded perfunctorily: "By the way, how long is it from here
Chen Baoqiang was good at observing words and expressions. Knowing that he was flattering, he hurriedly said: "Drive this road to the end, and you will reach the turn."
After driving for a few minutes, a mid-range community appeared in front of Luo Yuan.
At this time, gunfire suddenly came from the distance. The sound obviously came from a heavy machine gun.
Luo Yuan's heart tightened and he subconsciously stepped on the brakes.
Before Luo Yuan got off the car, Chen Baoqiang walked off. He looked up, relaxed and said with a smile: "It's okay, it's just a few birds flying over! There are always some fish that slip through the net, but as time goes by got used to!"
Luo Yuan opened the car window and took a look. Several birds had flown away, leaving only a few small dots.
He was a little worried. It seemed that there were no safety risks here!
Luo Yuan took a look at the house. The house was on the third floor, which was considered a pretty good floor. The decoration inside was pretty good, but the complete electrical appliances were a bit of a pity. Because there was no electricity, they could only be used as decorations. He went to the kitchen to take a look, and to his surprise, the gas and tap water were not cut off!
After experiencing the difficult existence in Donghu City, for him now, as long as he has a safe place with water and gas, he is satisfied.
When the contract was signed and the bill was paid, something unexpected happened.
"Do you accept food stamps here?"
Chen Baoqiang knew that he was from out of town and explained: "This money is depreciating every day. Who still uses money now! I advise you to go to the bank as soon as possible to exchange the money for food stamps, otherwise it will be difficult to buy anything."
Luo Yuan frowned. He didn't expect that he would encounter such an ancient product of the planned economy era. He had only heard some people from the older generation talking about this kind of thing. He asked: "Now food stamps and money What’s the exchange rate?”
"What I saw yesterday was twenty-three yuan for a pound of grain, but it will stop soon. Of course, you can also trade it directly with grain." When he was riding in the car just now, he saw that the back seat was full of grain. , so he said.
Luo Yuan didn't want to use precious food to pay the bill, so he thought for a while and said, "I don't have time to go to the bank now. Otherwise, if I pay the bill with money, I will use twenty-five yuan to exchange for a pound of food stamps. You can go to the trouble." What do you think about going to the bank?"
"If you're not afraid of losing money, of course you can!" Just one more trip and you can still make some small changes, so he naturally agreed to such a thing: "Let me calculate, six months' rent plus one month's agency fee , a total of fourteen thousand.
This kind of rent price was already extremely low even before the troubled times. If you take into account the depreciation of the currency, it is almost equivalent to the price of cabbage. The inflated housing prices that could not be solved in the prosperous times have plummeted to the bottom in the troubled times, falling to jaw-dropping prices. It has to be said that it is ironic.
Luo Yuan was not too surprised. He had long felt that the current rent would not be too high.
Before the chaos, he had withdrawn all the money in the bank, and now he still has hundreds of thousands left, which is more than enough to pay the bills.
After Chen Baoqiang left, Luo Yuan sat on the sofa, feeling the long-lost peace and quiet, and completely relaxed his body.
No one likes to live a precarious life where death may occur at any time.
He lay down for a while, stood up, and said to Master Wang: "Two rooms, which one do you choose?"
After missing Huang Jiahui, Master Wang seemed to be in a low mood. Hearing this, he said, "I'll choose the smaller room on the left."
After a while, she asked again: "Sister Huang, are you really not coming? What if you are still waiting there now?"
Luo Yuan was silent.
When Master Wang saw Luo Yuan's expression, he didn't dare to ask any more questions.
After sitting for a while, Luo Yuan loaded all the supplies in the car. Master Wang wanted to help but was driven away by Luo Yuan, who was a little annoyed. After everything was placed, Luo Yuan took a shower in the bathroom, but felt a little empty in his heart.
He got dressed, took out a crumpled cigarette case, took out a cigarette, lit a cigarette, and walked back and forth in the living room. When he was halfway through smoking, he quickly put it out and said to Master Wang: "You stay at home, I'll go Go outside!"
Before Wang Shishi could react, he strode out of the room, got into the car, stepped on the accelerator, and the car spewed thick black smoke, turned around and drove towards the entrance of the community.
Even he didn't know what he was doing, maybe it was to see a person clearly, maybe there was something else.
The car drove faster and faster, and half an hour later, he had already arrived at the highway intersection. It was already approaching dusk, and the sky was gradually getting dark. After such a long time, the registration of personnel had already ended, and the place seemed empty. Even the tin houses used as registration offices were deserted.
The deserted suburbs had a sense of desolation and silence. From time to time, various strange insects and birds could be heard in the distance, which made people shudder.
He glanced around, a trace of disappointment flashed across his face, and was about to turn back.
At this moment, he noticed from the corner of his eye that there seemed to be a person squatting on the roadside in front of him.
Luo Yuan's pupils shrank, and he stepped on the accelerator hard. The Santana 2000 roared unbearably and rushed forward quickly.
The car stopped, he opened the window and shouted: "What are you doing squatting there? Why don't you get in the car!"
Hearing this familiar voice, Huang Jiahui's body trembled and she raised her head, revealing a face full of guilt.
Then, her face was filled with excitement, her lips and even her body were trembling. She had mixed feelings in her heart for a moment, but when the words came to her mouth, she said firmly: "What are you doing here?"
"It's getting dark, Master Wang and I are waiting for you to cook, so hurry up." Luo Yuan leaned against the car window and said with a smile.
The emotion that had finally brewed was swept away by these words. She walked around the front of the car to the driver's seat and grabbed Luo Yuan's chest: "Do you know how many hours I have been waiting? Do you know that I How desperate I was just now. I don’t even have my daughter anymore, I have nothing! You won’t leave even if you drive me away, you bastard!”
After saying that, under Luo Yuan's shocked gaze, she blocked his lips with her mouth.