26
Dingzi was sitting at the door of Uncle Feng's shabby house. It was the fourth day and his face was numb from the wind.
Uncle Crazy has not been in the house all the time. I don’t know where he has gone.
Dingzi suspected that he had gone out to wander around and was eaten by the natives wandering in the black fog.
There were footsteps coming from behind the house. Dingzi was surprised at first, but then quickly disappointed. The footsteps were too familiar; they were his brother's.
"Eat." Hammer threw over a box of light yellow cubes. He brought them back from the main city. They were better than the food in the ghost town.
"Not hungry." said Nail.
"The captain is looking for you." Hammer sat down next to him.
"I don't know anything about Ning Gu, why are you looking for me?" Dingzi said, "Besides, didn't he ask you about Ning Gu's situation in the main city before?"
"I don't know." Hammer tapped his head twice. "It's not too urgent. Go find him when you have time. Maybe he has some news about Ning Gu."
Before he could finish his words, Nail jumped up and ran back to the shelter in the wind.
"You two have been wandering around together since you were little," Li Xiang sat beside the table and looked at the nail, "sometimes you didn't come back for several days, where did you go?"
"We went from one shelter to another," Nail said. "Sometimes we slept at someone else's place, and we often went to the garbage dump to look for things... Don't you know all about this?"
"Is there anything we don't know?" Li Xiang asked.
Nail was stunned for a moment: "You don't know?"
"I don't know." Li Xiang looked at him.
"I don't know..." Nail hesitated, "Tongue Bay?"
"Where are we at Shewan?" Li Xiang continued to ask.
"The tip of the tongue," Dingzi said with a bewildered look, "but I don't go there often. Ning Gu said it's easy to run into indigenous people there, and no one would know if you died there."
"Don't go there again in the future. He is very brave and you will just follow him around." Li Xiang sighed.
"He's not brave," Dingzi leaned over the table, his nose suddenly feeling a little sour, "He's just curious and wants to know everything."
"For example?" asked the captain, who had been standing aside with his arms folded.
"What is outside the black fog? How big is the ghost town? He..." Dingzi paused. These were all Ning Gu's doubts since he was a child. "Who are his parents? Besides the main city and the ghost town, where else is there land? There are quite a lot."
The team leader also sighed.
"Is there still no news about him?" Dingzi asked cautiously.
"The car didn't come," Li Xiang said, "and no one went to the main city, so we couldn't get any news."
"Oh." Nail wiped his tears.
When the nail returned to the door of Crazy Uncle's cabin, the hammer was still sitting there waiting for him.
"What did I ask you?" Hammer looked at him.
"I didn't ask anything important." Nail's eyes were still a little red. He took off his goggles and wiped his tears. "But it's a little strange."
"What?" Hammer was a little surprised, "Why are you still crying?"
"I just want to cry," Nail said, lowering his voice again, "Besides, if I don't cry, how can they believe me?"
"Are you acting again?" Hammer also lowered his voice.
"There must be something in the Tongue Bay," said Nail, in a voice that could be blown away by the wind as soon as it came out of his mouth.
Hammer looked at him in surprise.
"Li Xiang asked me if there was any place we had been to that he didn't know about," Dingzi whispered, "If I didn't say we had been to Shewan, they definitely wouldn't believe me. So I told them about Shewan, and they asked me where Shewan was."
"That's a strange question. If you went there, you definitely wouldn't dare to go in," Hammer thought for a moment, "Did Ning Gu go in?"
"He didn't go in when we went there together," Dingzi rubbed his nose, "Ning Gu might have been in there, he wants to know everything..."
"Don't tell anyone about this. If we tell anyone, we might all be doomed." Hammer sighed, "It's just that I feel... Ning Gu..."
"Don't even talk about that!" Nail shouted.
"Don't say it," Hammer stood up, "I'm going back, are you still waiting here?"
"Wait," Dingzi bit his lip, "I'm waiting for Uncle Feng to come back. Even if I can't get anything out of him, I'm going to beat him up."
"Okay." Hammer put the food in his hand and turned away.
When the figure of Crazy Uncle and a rotten quilt-like figure appeared and disappeared in the black fog, Dingzi already felt his buttocks numb from sitting and his stomach was so hungry that he could not bear it any more.
He jumped up and rushed over, jumping up from a long distance and kicking.
This was what Ning Gu taught him. Ning Gu taught him many fighting skills. After all, a traveler without any ability had to be good at fighting if he wanted to avoid being bullied in a ghost town.
However, when he was still one meter away, Crazy Uncle raised his hand and he was thrown back to his original place.
"Old man," Nail climbed up and pointed at him, "You must have a secret. I've never heard Ning Gu say that you have any ability."
"I have the ability to predict the future," Crazy Uncle came up to him, "I predict that you are hungry."
Just as Dingzi was about to curse, his stomach growled, like a roar that could be heard over the strong wind.
"Let's go back and eat." Uncle Crazy said as he went into the house.
"You definitely know more than me." The nail squeezed into the crack of the door when he was closing it, "Will Ning Gu be in danger if he goes to the main city? Why didn't the captain and the others let him go?"
Crazy uncle pushed the door, the nail face was deformed, but he still insisted on getting stuck in the crack of the door: "You also said he shouldn't go, why?"
"Protect yourself," said Crazy Uncle, "and wait for him to come back."
"If you don't tell me, you won't be able to wait for him to come back. Do you believe it?" Dingzi yelled at him, "I'll bring a bomb here tomorrow to blow you up!"
"Don't go to Tongue Bay." Uncle Crazy said again.
Nail looked at him.
"I know you want to go," said Crazy Uncle, "Don't go."
"I'll go anyway!" said the nail.
"Aren't you afraid that you will never see your good friend again?" The crazy uncle held his face and pushed him out of the door.
Dingzi is a persistent and loyal person, just like Ninggu, that's why the two of them have been together for so many years. Now that he is locked outside the door, he has not given up. You can hear him walking around the room cursing.
Uncle Crazy sighed and ignored it.
He lowered his head and quickly packed the odds and ends that had been sorted out on the table into a cloth bag and put it in his backpack.
With Ning Gu's departure, I'm afraid the peace of the ghost town will soon be broken.
Although he knew it was a matter of time, Crazy Uncle still felt a little sorry for the happy life in the ghost town for so many years. It was chaotic but energetic, aimless but full of vitality.
He didn't know where he would go if the ghost town fell into chaos, but he was prepared anyway.
"What's outside the black fog? Are there people? Are there monsters?"
Ning Gu had been sitting in the cave like a sculpture for a long time, and Lian Chuan had never seen him stay quiet for more than five minutes, except when sleeping.
It was obvious before that the relationship between Ning Gu and the team leader was different from that of ordinary travelers. Someone who could make the team leader and several others come to the rescue at the same time must at least have a very close relationship with him.
Despite such a close relationship, Ning Gu seemed to know nothing about the contact between the ghost town and the main city.
And this fact hit Ning Gu hard. After yelling at him, he never spoke again.
But Lian Chuan is also in a daze now.
The team leader and Li Xiang secretly transported raw materials to the main city. This matter was not considered a secret in the City Affairs Department and the Internal Defense Department. It would be difficult to supply irregular raw materials if they only relied on various redundancies, illegal births and bug recycling. It was also impossible to apply for normal births. The control was very strict, and the City Affairs Department did not allow such "inhumane" behavior.
So some of the raw materials come from ghost towns, Lianchuan is clear about it.
But the memory that Ning Gu told him today should have been reset, and he didn't remember it.
The reason for being reset was the part he had always suspected.
In addition to the non-routine plan, there are indeed other experiments underway.
Those escaped experimental subjects who need the cleanup team to clean up after, those weird experimental subjects that make people suspect that the non-standard experimental subjects have exceeded the original purpose, and those experimental subjects that need to be transported back to the ghost town... The Internal Defense Department knows about it, but the City Affairs Department may not know about it. After all, the cleanup team is the one who does the dirty work.
"I want to go back to ghost town." Ning Gu suddenly turned his head and looked at him and said.
"We can't go back now," Lian Chuan said.
"I want to go back when the car comes," Ning Gu said, "Don't arrest me, let me go back."
Lian Chuan looked at him, Ning Gu's voice was a little deep. It was the first time in all the time he had been with him that he didn't hear smugness or anger in his voice.
"I know you have a mission," Ning Gu said, "but it would definitely be better for you not to hand me in. Otherwise, they would put me in the water column and make ten thousand of me... I don't know what the purpose would be, but you and Betelgeuse would probably be doomed anyway."
"At this moment," Lian Chuan said, "you're still threatening me?"
"Deal," Ning Gu stretched out his hand, "If you let me go, I can help you in any way you want."
"Have you thought about the consequences if I fail to complete this task?" Lian Chuan asked.
"I have thought about it," Ning Gu still stretched out his hand, "but I don't need to think about it. When you threw me into the Lost Valley, you had already thought about the consequences. Now you also know what it means to you to capture me. According to your original plan, there should be two ways now. One, I help you, and the other is that I don't help you and you kill me. No matter which one, you can't complete the task."
Lian Chuan looked at his hands, and after a while he spoke: "You are not really brainless."
"What nonsense are you talking about? The one who has no brains is Jiu Yi," Ning Gu frowned, "I want to go back. Help me. I promise to take the nearest car to find you."
"Why do you have to go back?" Lian Chuan asked.
"I don't believe what you just said," Ning Gu said, "I want to find out for myself."
"You really don't believe it?" Lian Chuan asked again.
"I don't believe it." Ning Gu stared at him.
Lian Chuan raised his hand and patted it gently.
"Deal." Ning Gu said.
"Let me give you a suggestion." Lian Chuan said.
"What suggestions?" Ning Gu asked.
"Don't ask directly," Lian Chuan said, "I'm afraid you won't be able to come back."
Ning Gu said nothing and just stared at him.
Lian Chuan didn't say anything else.
"I'm going to ask directly." Ning Gu said.
Lian Chuan glanced at him and turned his head away.
"I don't believe it! Do you understand? I don't believe it!" Ning Gu suddenly raised his voice, "You don't know the leader at all! I don't believe he would do such a thing! If you said he sent the natives here, I would believe it, but travelers? I don't believe it."
Lian Chuan raised his hand and pressed it on his throat: "Don't shout, are you afraid that Jiu Yi won't be able to find us?"
"I'm going to shout!" Ning Gu's voice was trembling and filled with anger.
Lian Chuan pressed his fingers downward.
Ning Gu fell silent.
When he loosened his fingers again, Ning Gu leaned back against the wall of the cave, looking depressed.
His voice lowered as well: "I never knew who my parents were. The leader is like a father to me."
Lian Chuan didn't say anything.
"He was very strict and fierce," Ning Gu said. "I was quite afraid of him."
"You won't understand." Ning Gu said again.