Melting City

Chapter 45

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Ning Gu hesitated for a long time on whether to tell the team leader that the Tongue Bay had moved several hundred meters inward, and finally chose to remain silent.

If it were in the past, for such a big event, he would definitely risk being hung on the bell tower and notify the team leader immediately.

But now, apart from Dingzi, who has disappeared, and Lianchuan, who has a clear interest in him, he doesn't know who he can trust.

He couldn't let anyone know that he went to Tongue Bay, especially after knowing that there was a man with a hoarse voice in Tongue Bay.

The traveler has a patrol team, so he doesn't need to report what happened in Tongue Bay, and the team leader will know about it soon.

This is the only reason Ning Gu can use to comfort himself.

But even though he was so depressed and conflicted, Ning Gu still lay down on the floor of Uncle Crazy's hut and fell asleep.

He woke up again because Lian Chuan kicked him, and when he opened his eyes he heard the sound of bells in the distance.

"What's that sound?" Lian Chuan asked.

"Guards, assemble," Ning Gu sat up and ran to the door. "The last time we assembled was when a large number of indigenous people suddenly appeared in the metal cemetery."

"What about now?" Lian Chuan asked.

"Because of Tongue Bay." Ning Gu glanced at him.

"What else is in the Tongue Bay?" Lian Chuan also looked at him.

Ning Gu didn't answer immediately.

"Don't hide it from me," Lian Chuan said, "I want to know everything you know, otherwise I will kill you next time."

Ning Gu frowned, and after a while he said, "Your words are too annoying. Everyone who wanted to say something shut up after hearing this."

Lian Chuan still looked at him.

"I'm telling you it's not because I'm afraid of death. I don't care whether I live or not," Ning Gu said, "We travelers..."

"You care." Lian Chuan said.

"Are you me? It's okay to be confident, but don't be blindly confident," Ning Gu said with a sigh, "Although I..."

"Don't hide it." Lian Chuan didn't respond to his words and repeated them again.

Ning Gu originally wanted to say a few more words, but was instantly pushed back, and he almost lost all his thoughts.

If Lian Chuan said one more word, he would want to raise his right hand, regardless of whether he could use his ability or not, he would just put on the posture.

But Lian Chuan actually shut up.

"Tongue Bay is the closest border to the ghost town, but no one knows what's over there," Ning Gu said. "The fog in Tongue Bay is the thickest. When the wind blows, the fog in one area rolls up like a tongue, so it's called Tongue Bay."

"Yeah." Lian Chuan responded.

"When I went there yesterday, the tongue was gone. The thickest fog in Tongue Bay pressed forward, and the entire tongue, which was several hundred meters long, was gone," Ning Gu frowned. "When the captain and Li Xiang took me there, it wasn't like this. In just one day, Tongue Bay swallowed up the tongue."

"Where did they take you?" Lian Chuan asked.

"The border," Ning Gu looked at him, "is filled with the bodies of travelers..."

"It's complete?" Lian Chuan didn't seem surprised.

Of course, no one could tell that he was surprised, except for the first time he heard that he was called Xiaolaba.

"The leader said they are not dead, but they will never wake up again..." Ning Gu stopped talking halfway, and after a while he spoke out his guess in disbelief, "Those can't be... materials, right?"

Lian Chuan didn't say anything.

When the team leader led his men to Tongue Bay, they passed by Uncle Crazy's cabin from a distance.

Ning Gu did not go out. In the past, he would definitely follow when something like this happened. Even if he did not have the ability, he would still want to contribute, even if it was just to join in the fun.

But today he didn't even go out of the door, nor did he even stick to the crack of the door to take a look over there.

After Lian Chuan told him that everyone had gone far away, he put on his coat, put on his goggles, placed the monkey's paw against his belly, opened the door and walked out.

"You are right here..." Lian Chuan interrupted him before he could finish his words.

"Yeah." Lian Chuan leaned back in the recliner and closed his eyes.

I'll bring you something to eat and drink when I come back.

Ning Gu opened his mouth to say something else.

"Yeah." Lian Chuan responded again.

Ning Gu slammed the door.

The team leader and Li Xiang have both left the shelter, so now is a good opportunity to find Lin Fan.

Moreover, a large number of travelers followed to Tongue Bay, and Ning Gu could avoid many conflicts when passing through the shelter. Although Lian Chuan had stayed, a consensus had been reached that as long as he did not cause trouble, no one would trouble him.

But in comparison, Ning Gu, who has a personal relationship with Lian Chuan, is even more unacceptable as a "traitor".

Ning Gu tried his best to choose a route with fewer people and walked towards Lin Fan's cabin.

The road would pass by his own cabin.

He glanced over there from a distance. The hut was still the same. The collapsed ruins had not been cleaned up. Travelers were not very good at cleaning these things up. The hut would be blown down by the wind, knocked down by the power during a fight, or even trampled down when a crowd of people gathered. There was no need to clean it up. Just find a place to build another one.

However, not only did his hut look like it had not been cleaned up, but even the small items inside showed no signs of having been rummaged through.

This is not the style of travelers.

This is the way travelers express their dissatisfaction with Ning Gu.

We don't want to pick up your things.

Ning Gu sighed and planned to ask Lin Fan for a bag later so that he could look through it when he came back and pick up all his precious little gadgets.

Half of Lin Fan's hut is underground and is not very obvious from a distance.

The door of the hut was closed and no light came out.

Ning Gu walked closer and saw that the door suddenly became bright.

"It's me, Ning Gu." he said.

The door of the cabin opened, Ning Gu walked in, went down a short flight of stairs, and saw Lin Fan sitting next to a table piled with papers and books.

This was the first time he walked into Lin Fan’s cabin. There were probably not many travelers in the entire ghost town who had ever entered.

Otherwise, they would definitely be shocked and tell everyone that they had never seen so much paper, let alone so many books.

There was almost no place to stand in Lin Fan's little house, as books were piled everywhere.

"Do you like reading very much?" Ning Gu asked.

"Otherwise what's the fun in that?" Lin Fan said.

"Go play around. The ghost town is so big that it will take a whole day to go around it." Ning Gu picked up a book on the ground next to him and flipped through it. It was full of words. He basically didn't recognize anything except the page numbers, but... The piece of paper he picked up in the Tongue Bay felt somewhat similar, both were a little yellowed, and felt brittle when he pinched it.

"The team leader's education of you was really successful." Lin Fan said.

Ning Gu put down the book and looked at him: "What do you mean."

"Why do you think you can't read?" Lin Fan asked, "Is it because you don't want to learn, or is there no one to teach you?"

Ning Gu had never thought about this problem. There were no written items in the ghost town, and few travelers could read...

But Lin Fan clearly has so many words here.

It's just that no one knows.

"The commander doesn't allow me to learn to read," Ning Gu said, "is that right?"

"He wants to protect you." Lin Fan said.

"Can you protect me just because you can't read?" Ning Gu felt that this reason was too weak.

"What's the matter with you coming to see me?" Lin Fan did not answer his question.

"Who is that person in Tongue Bay?" Ning Gu went straight to the point. "What did you do in Tongue Bay? Why is the black circle on Lian Chuan's neck your ability?"

Lin Fan sat there motionless, and did not react at all after hearing what he said.

After a long while, she seemed to be startled and looked up at him: "You entered Tongue Bay?"

"Why are you pretending!" Ning Gu was speechless.

"I knew you would find out one day," Lin Fan said slowly, "the chain cannot hold him down. Today he is here, tomorrow he is there, there will always be children who will help him push the black iron stake."

kid.

The shadowy figure had also used that term.

"Why do you think I would tell you?" Lin Fan said, "You have never spoken to me since we were little."

"I noticed that you and the leader were not on the same page," Ning Gu said, "He didn't let me go to the main city, but you let me go. You wanted to tell me things he didn't want to tell me several times."

Lin Fan glanced at him and said, "Captain and Li Xiang are my friends for life and death."

"What I said is true." Ning Gu said.

"Lao Gui is the only mixed-race person in Ghost Town." Lin Fan said.

"Mixed-blood?" Ning Gu didn't quite understand.

"He is a traveler with an indigenous person in his body," Lin Fan looked at him. "The ghost town and shelter were snatched from the indigenous people by the first travelers. After countless battles and countless dead companions, he is the only traveler who will not be attacked because of the infection. He has all the abilities of the indigenous people to survive in the dark."

The history of the ghost town is just a vague and incomplete oral account for all travelers born in the ghost town. No one knows the details of the hard battle back then.

"Why does he know me?" Ning Gu asked.

"How could I not know?" Lin Fan's expression suddenly showed some inexplicable sadness. "He is also a close friend who fought all the way from the main city. Of course the leader would talk to him about the ghost town."

"Friend of life and death," Ning Gu felt his hands trembling a little, "So this is how you treat your friend of life and death, tying him to Tongue Bay and using him as a living target for your experiment! Friend of life and death? It really is a friend of life and death."

"Compared to the main city," Lin Fan said, "what the team leader did was not excessive."

"The captain did it?" Ning Gu glared at him. "You are not the one responsible! You dare not tell me the truth, and you want to put all the responsibility on your lifelong friend?"

Lin Fan tilted his head and looked at him.

"Why are you looking at your grandpa!" Ning Gu continued to stare at him.

"I opposed it from the beginning," Lin Fan said, "I didn't participate from the beginning."

Ning Gu was stunned.

"You guessed it right. The team leader, Li Xiang and I are not on the same page," Lin Fan said. "What they are going to do is something I don't want to see, but they are not wrong either."

"What are you talking about?" Ning Gu didn't understand.

"Some people believe that an exit will definitely appear, and they will do whatever it takes to find the exit and escape. The leader thinks he can take his companions away," Lin Fan stood up and slowly walked in front of him. "Some people believe that everything is just an irreversible cycle. Once the cycle starts, it will not stop. Whether there is an exit or not, there will always be people who will be left behind or choose to stay. Those who stay here must survive."

When Ning Gu listened to these words, he felt that he should bring Lian Chuan with him to eavesdrop outside.

His brain had begun to shut down.

"Ning Gu, there are some things you need to ask the leader. You need to listen to everything he says and I say," Lin Fan said, "The collapse may have already begun... But it is up to you to choose which path to take. No one can arrange for you, and you should not follow any arrangements."

When returning to Uncle Crazy's cabin, Ning Gu cancelled his plan to pick up things from his own cabin. He was not in the mood and just took some food and water from Lin Fan.

Lian Chuan was still leaning on the recliner, but he was not sleeping.

"Do you want to eat?" Ning Gu threw the bag on the table.

"I'm not hungry yet." Lian Chuan replied.

Ning Gu didn't say anything more. He took the food and stuffed himself, then drank a bottle of water. Then he wiped his mouth and stood motionless beside the table.

"Who is that person in She Bay?" Lian Chuan helped him start the conversation.

Ning Gu's mood, which had just started to rise due to his full stomach, was instantly pulled back to Lin Fan's words.

However, when Lian Chuan heard him talk about this, he remained calm as always, and his focus was obviously different from his.

"Does Lin Fan have a lot of books?" Lian Chuan asked.

"Yes," Ning Gu nodded, "A lot, all piled up in the house."

"What book?" Lian Chuan asked.

“… old books.” Ning Gu answered with difficulty.

Lian Chuan turned his head and looked at him.

"How would I know what book it is? I can't read!" Ning Gu was a little annoyed. "I just knew the paper had turned yellow and brittle. I picked up a book and when I put it back, it was torn where my hand touched. I didn't dare let him find out... Anyway, new paper should be very white, just like the book we exchanged in Lost Valley, isn't it very white?"

"Yeah." Lian Chuan responded.

"Why do you ask this?" Ning Gu asked.

"Where did the book come from in the ghost town?" Lian Chuan said, "There is no record of travelers taking books away from the main city. It is impossible for them to take books away during the expulsion war. Besides, such old books are rare in the main city."

"The book was found in the ghost town." Ning Gu said.

"Why are there so many old books in a place like a ghost town?" Lian Chuan stood up, picked up a bottle of water and took a sip.

"How long does it take for a new book to become an old book like this?" Ning Gu frowned.

"A long time." Lian Chuan said.

Ning Gu stared at him for a long time without waiting for the next sentence: "So you can also answer nonsense?"

"Why does Lin Fan think that the people left behind after the collapse can survive?" Lian Chuan said.

Ning Gu suddenly found it difficult to breathe: "Because he found the book of the previous generation of the main city here?"

"Uncle Feng still has tea leaves that don't even exist," Lian Chuan said. "As generations collapse, there will always be something left. If something can be left, it is not impossible for people to survive."

"I suddenly remembered something," Ning Gu pointed at Lian Chuan, "It's in the main city, you..."

"Don't point at me." Lian Chuan said.

Ning Gu paused, then quickly poked his chest twice with his finger: "Who is Fan Lu?"

"A certain captain," Lian Chuan said, "is friends with the boss."

"Is there anything strange about him?" Ning Gu asked.

"I'm drunk every day, so I feel weird." Lian Chuan replied.

"Crazy Uncle looks very much like him," Ning Gu said. "Although Crazy Uncle has a full beard, when you cover his face, their eyes are exactly the same. It's impossible for two people to look so alike, right?"

"Well." Lian Chuan said, "Unless..."

"Unless you are the same as me, there are four more," Ning Gu pointed at himself, "You see I don't mind being pointed at."

"Does Lin Fan have any contact with Uncle Feng?" Lian Chuan asked.

"They both keep to themselves, but who knows?" Ning Gu said.

"If Lin Fan finds the old books," Lian Chuan took another sip of water, "and finds Uncle Crazy..."

Ning Gu's back was covered with goosebumps. Only then did he realize that Lian Chuan was following his speculation and quickly reminded him: "Do you think what I said is possible? I just mentioned it casually."

"So he would oppose the captain to pay such a huge price to compete with the main city for the exit." Lian Chuan put down the bottle, "He believes there are other opportunities to survive."