The day before setting off for the Food Pang Land, all team members gathered in the courtyard of Lin Yuan's house.
Under the big tree in front of the window, everyone carefully checked the weapons and supplies they brought with them, checked the plans and itinerary for the last time, and chatted about everything.
Guo Suo brought a lot of delicious food to everyone, including soufflé drizzled with honey, tender fried beef ribs, waffles sprinkled with icing sugar... and sweet wine and sugar.
The atmosphere was good, everyone was drinking heavily and talking more than usual, as if tomorrow's departure was just an outdoor outing rather than a trip to a dangerous area far away from home.
Du Yuanyuan arrived the latest and had a very loud voice. She sat down at the table as soon as she entered the room, gulped down a bottle of beer on the table, and laughed loudly.
"Shushuang, there's no such good wine to drink outside. I must make Xiaoyuan drunk today."
"What's wrong?" Lin Yuan looked at her without smiling, "What happened?"
Du Yuanyuan's smile froze for a moment, and she slowly drank the glass of wine in her hand, "Oh, I forgot there was a guide here, I can't hide it from you."
"It's nothing, a very common thing." She held the wine glass tightly with her fingers, looked at the wine shaking in the glass, and spoke in a much softer voice, "A very good sister, she died in the contaminated area."
Her panda became very small, with its wet head drooping on her shoulder, looking listless.
A tentacle rolled the red panda over and rubbed its hair dry with a large towel.
Yun Luo, who was sitting next to Du Yuanyuan, poured her a glass of wine and the two clinked their glasses.
Du Yuanyuan asked Yun Luo, a little drunk, "Captain Yun, why do you want to go in and out of the contaminated area? A noble like you enjoys immunity, so you can just stay in the White Tower. Why go to such a dangerous place?"
"As long as it's a contaminated area, there's no safety. Look, you even left an arm in there."
Yun Luo's cold mechanical prosthetic arm held the wine glass and slowly drank the wine.
"It started with my teacher. He died in the contaminated area."
"Later, after going there many times and seeing the truly cruel world, I could no longer feel comfortable rotting in a false dream."
He raised his glass to Rachel who was sitting opposite him, "I still admire you soldiers who have been guarding the sentry posts all year round the most."
Rachel drank a cup with him and lowered her golden eyelashes. "In fact, before I came here, I didn't expect the people in the White Tower to live like this. I didn't dare to imagine that there would be so many meaningless banquets and endless food."
"At the sentry post, many children die of starvation every year. Those children, before they are 15 years old, would lie about their age and join the military camp just to fill their stomachs."
"Our sentry commander is a very cautious and caring officer. But there are only a few of my companions who entered the camp with me now."
The water in the teapot was still bubbling, the wine was fragrant, flowers were hanging on the branches, and the huge white tower was right in front of us.
"Drink, drink. Blame me for ruining the atmosphere. This happens every day. It's nothing, isn't it?" Du Yuanyuan laughed and raised her glass to the game. "Cheers to this fucking world."
Nicole didn't know how to drink, but she accompanied Du Yuanyuan to drink a small cup. Her fair face turned red and she spoke a little drunkenly.
"I don't like this tower either." Nicole, the guide, lay on the table, "It's rotten from the inside out. Just wait and see, it will fall down one day... I know, many people hope it falls down..."
She was talking nonsense.
Everyone pretended not to hear it, but everyone at the scene had heard this voice in their hearts.
At dusk, the setting sun is like a pool of blood smeared on the horizon, falling heavily down.
Lin Yuan looked up at the gradually darkening sky and thought, this is the last night before departure.
{Humans are truly incomprehensible creatures.}
The bone-colored demon sword stuck to Ni Ji, muttering to itself all the way.
{So you've been working day and night these days just to make time to be with her? Why didn't you tell me in advance?}
They were walking on an upward ramp. The porcelain-white giant tower was very close, and its huge body almost blocked out the entire sky.
The slope turned a corner, and I could see a corner of the house on the top of the slope from afar. The lively roses stretched out of the courtyard wall, which was very conspicuous.
Compared with the huge white tower, the courtyard is very small, as small as a home that can keep people warm.
Ni Ji walked towards the courtyard where spring flowers were blooming. The bored Yaodao kept muttering in his mind all the way.
{Isn't this inappropriate? Still thinking about love at this time?}
{Isn't your wish very powerful? Destroy the White Tower, overthrow the Empire, save all mankind, etc.}
{Why bother about the guide? She wanted to go to the contaminated area on her own, and there were many people around her to protect her.}
{It was not easy for him to become an adjutant and integrate into the White Tower's upper echelons.}
{I should perform well, get to know more people, and gain their trust, right?}
{The overall situation is important. Even I know this. You can't do it, right?}
{Hi, Adjutant Ni, Captain Ni, please talk.}
Ni Ji stopped at a roadside fruit stall and bought a bag of apples as a gift.
The stall was manned by a woman with a young child. The woman took the imperial currency from Ni Ji and thanked him repeatedly.
Ni Ji took the whole bag of apples, took out one and put it into the child's hand.
The little child was so skinny that her bones were visible, and her head was as big as a swollen carrot. She took a desperate bite of the apple, and her mother couldn't stop her.
The sentry continued to move forward carrying the apple, answering Yaodao in his mind.
“Some people’s aspirations are great, but mine are small.”
{oh?}
"I hate this tower. But if the world after the fall of the White Tower doesn't have her, it means nothing to me."
{Wow, is that something a justice messenger would say? You look a little crazy.}
Ni Ji's footsteps were moving upwards. In front of him was an extremely huge tower. The blood-red setting sun dyed the tower body red, which looked like white bones.
"Many people around me are gone. I may not be able to reach the end."
"But I hope she can, or I think she has a better chance of seeing that day than I do."
"If she could take a look at the world on the day the White Tower collapses, my wish would be fulfilled."
"For this reason, it doesn't matter if you're a little crazy."
We arrived at the yard with roses in bloom. The sun set behind the mountain and the warm yellow street lights lit up on the street.
Cheerful voices came through the heavy door, and the sentry raised his hand and rang the doorbell.
The heavy metal door was quickly opened, and the fragrance of lush vegetation filled the air.
A familiar face suddenly appeared from behind the door.
The little white face, the long black hair tied behind the head, and a pair of bright eyes lit up by the street lamps,
Ni Ji saw his own reflection in those eyes.
The courtyard is deep, with the fragrance of flowers and thick shade of grass.
"I'm not late, am I?" Ni Ji laughed.
The land of Shi Pang is far away from Kyoto, but there is an airship that runs once every two weeks that can go directly there.
The group arrived by airship. After getting off the airship, they saw messy alleys and shabby houses everywhere as far as the border post could see.
The passers-by were all skinny and half-naked. When they saw the sentries from Kyoto, hatred was reflected in their cold eyes.
Yesterday I was in the luxurious Kyoto, with fine wine and delicious food at hand. Today, when I got off the airship, I saw the devastated and barren world.
It makes people feel as if they don't know what is real.
I just don't know whether the gorgeous clothes, delicious food, extravagance and debauchery in the White Tower are just a dream, or the starving people and cold wind and rain here are real.
At this moment, I understood more clearly what Yun Luo said.
After seeing the truly cruel world, you can no longer stay in the false dream and rot with peace of mind.
But how many people in this world have the character of Yun Luo
The privileged people in the White Tower live a life of drunkenness and debauchery, with their eyes blinded and indifferent to worldly affairs.
It is precisely because we dare not and are unwilling to face such a poor and difficult real world.
At the border of the polluted area in the Food Panda Land, the red warning sign disappeared, and a small building with a peculiar shape was built.
The ones guarding the small building were not humans, but several mutants wearing formal attire.
Those deformed species, perhaps they should be called ladies, each of them has a human female face, with high hair, revealing a white and soft neck.
She has a slim waist and is wearing a retro long dress.
When Lin Yuan and his group arrived, a mutant who was looking down and flipping through a book with his jagged sickle-shaped green arm raised his head.
"Are you a visitor?" She spoke in human language and smiled politely, "If you want to eat in Pangzhicheng, you must register with me first."
Her voice was gentle, her face was beautiful, and her expression was dignified. "Follow me, everyone. You can call me Ms. Green Wing."
When she stood up, I found that she was very tall, over three meters tall, far exceeding the height of a human.
The back is dragged with thin coverts and membranous wings. Several thin hind legs are exposed under the skirt. When walking, the body is light and graceful.
There is a kind of beauty that is both weird and mysterious.
But although she smiled gently, she looked kind and lovely.
Lin Yuan and others remembered her face and the small building behind her.
Before coming here, Yun Luo showed everyone the photo. It was the bloody photo that the mantis lady took of herself.
In that photo, she brutally executed an entire team of sentries with such a pure and gentle smile.
They were nailed alive on sharp wooden stakes, leaving them to die in agony with blood flowing out.
He took photos with a smile on his face.
"Three ladies, with three gentlemen?"
Ms. Green Wing took out a very paper registration book and used her finger dipped in ink to write down the identity information of Lin Yuan and others.
Lin Yuan took a closer look. She used an ancient human script that had been forgotten by most people. The writing was elegant and simple, and very beautiful.
"Why did you come to our Food City?"
"I want to exchange some things." Rachel opened the box they brought. In the box was a box of neatly stacked silk dresses, each of which was a hand-embroidered masterpiece, extremely gorgeous.
"Wow. That's what we need. What polite guests they are." Green Wing smiled.
"I just want to have a good time in Food City. Please be sure to abide by the rules and regulations of Food City."
"The rules that ladies must follow are as follows: no killing, no robbery, and no rape."
"There are slightly more for men." She took out a few pages of notices with golden lace from the drawer and handed them to Rachel Yunluo, Ni Ji and the other two. "The punishment for making mistakes is very severe. I hope you will remember them carefully."
Dozens of laws are listed in detail on a few thin pages of paper, including various rules that need to be followed in terms of clothing, speech and behavior, entering and leaving occasions, etc. It is extremely cumbersome.
Fortunately, they had made some preparations before coming and had memorized everything carefully. The three sentinels took it with cold faces.
"Also, your clothes are not quite appropriate. In the City of Food Pang, males have the obligation to show off their beautiful bodies. They must wear the special clothes of our nation and cannot wear such ugly and unceremonious pants." Green Wing said with a smile, "If you want to go in, you can go to the locker room to change first."
Du Yuanyuan coughed with a gloating look on her face.
Although in the Empire, they were all sentinels, with no difference. But in the City of Food Pang, gender was the primary sexual characteristic. Men were of low status and had the obligation to please women.
If the three men wanted to enter smoothly, they could only patiently obey local customs.
Although the journey was dangerous, at the beginning, seeing Adjutant Ni, Team Yun, and Team Lei changing into the distinctive short clothes of Food City with an embarrassed look on their faces was still very soothing and helped to relieve tension.
And in front of the two guides.
Thinking of this, Du Yuanyuan whistled in a very unkind way.
(End of this chapter)