Extra 2: Dragon Pond
This is the twelfth day since I left Yuncheng for vacation. The weather today is not very good. Although it is not too cold, I haven’t seen the sun in the morning for two days. The fog around me has not dissipated, and the cold air is humid.
Qiu Shi wrote down his feelings when he woke up this morning in his pet, then opened the car door and jumped out.
Xing Bi was on the roof of the car, adjusting the solar panels and checking the battery level.
"Is there another city ahead?" Qiu Shi asked while eating from a can.
"Yes," Xing Bi said, "If there was no fog, we might be able to see the house over there now."
"Are we going to change the fuel?" Qiu Shi asked.
"There's still enough electricity," Xing Bi looked up at the sky, "It might rain. Let's go forward after we finish eating and find a building to shelter from the rain."
"Hmm," Qiu Shi looked around, "Want to look for fungi?"
"This area is full of Type 3 fungi," Xing Bi jumped down from the roof of the car, "walk forward a little more."
"Have you noticed," Qiu Shi got into the car and threw a supplement to Xing Bi, "I haven't seen many people around here since yesterday. Before, there were refugees scattered around here, but in the past two days, I haven't even seen any homeless people."
"We'll know when we get to the city ahead. This means there's a large stronghold ahead," Xing Bi threw the supplement back into the box behind him. "I want to eat canned food."
"A biological body can still be greedy," Qiu Shi opened the can and handed it to him, "Try the new flavor, luncheon meat, Li Feng's favorite."
"Our ancestors are tired of this taste," Xing Bi took the can, "Our ancestors wouldn't eat this unless they were starving to death or too lazy to eat it."
"Give it back to me." Qiu Shi stretched out his hand.
Xing Bi smiled, scratched his palm with his fingers, lowered his head and finished the can in a few bites.
"They even know how to bring a spoon," Xing Bi said with some emotion, "Some unkempt doomsday guys can't rub their hands on others anymore."
"I kept all the spoons," Qiu Shi said, rubbing his fingers on his sleeves. "Li Feng said the cost was too high. Only this batch has spoons, and there will be no spoons for the future batches."
"You keep all the junk." Xing Bi started the car with a smile.
"There is no such thing as junk in this world," Qiu Shi said. "When there are things that everyone thinks are junk, it means we are no longer the doomsday people."
"Well," Xing Bi glanced at him, "that makes sense."
The car continued to head south. The road was relatively flat at first, but after driving for a short distance, it turned onto a wider dirt road, and the road surface began to become rough and bumpy.
Qiu Shi saw some ancient stone boundary markers on the side of the road, but the earliest words had been eroded by time and could no longer be recognized. New place names were carved on the upper part by people from an unknown era, and they were also blurred but still recognizable.
"Longtan," Qiu Shi said, "This name doesn't sound like a good place. It sounds like the territory of our Mountain Eagle Master Li Sanye."
"A den of dragons and tigers," Xing Bi said, "the person who came up with the name had to be someone who had read a lot of old books like Mr. Li San."
Qiu Shi looked at the blurred words and said, "He must have died a long time ago. The words are all blurred."
"Well," Xing Bi said, "Longtanhuxue (a dragon's den) and Huxue (a tiger's lair) are places of great danger, such as the dragon's den and the tiger's lair."
Qiu Shi looked at him.
"Did you remember it?" Xing Bi asked.
Qiu Shi didn't say anything.
"If you remember, answer. If you don't remember, I'll say it again," Xing Bi said. "If you find my class boring, go back to Mr. Li's class."
"I remember it," Qiu Shi answered immediately, "Longtanhuxue, it describes a very dangerous place, where dragons and tigers live, very fierce."
"Great." Xing Bi nodded.
"Fuck." Qiu Shi smiled and turned to look out the window.
After running east and south and seeing many ancient city ruins, he could simply judge from the scale of the buildings and roads on the edge that Longtan was a small city.
It is a small city with people living in it.
Not only that, it seems that there are quite a few people coming and going here.
The potholes and long ridges on the dirt road were obviously caused by the wheels.
Qiu Shi opened the map in front of him and immediately saw scattered small bright spots.
"This is really a settlement," he stared at the map, "there are people starting to come here."
"Yes," Xing Bi responded, locking the car doors and windows. "Do you have the gun?"
"I always keep it with me except when I take a shower." Qiu Shi took off the gun hanging on his leg. "Do you feel something is wrong?"
"General refugee gathering places won't have such tire tracks," Xing Bi said. "This place might be a real bandit den."
"Are they more homeless than Lao Qi and the others?" Qiu Shi leaned close to the window and observed the surrounding environment.
"It's possible." Xing Bi said.
As the car drove further, groups of people began to appear on both sides of the road. They were all dressed in shabby clothes. Some of them were obviously refugees, and some were obviously vagrants.
But unlike the vagrants and refugees in the past, the people here did not seem surprised to see their car. Although they were all staring at it, no one came over or stopped the car. Instead, they just sat or squatted and watched calmly.
"There are a lot of people on the street ahead, I think there are about a hundred of them," Qiu Shi said, "both humans and cyborgs... This place is a little strange."
"This is a... post station." Xing Bi slowed down the car.
"What station?" The only thing in Qiu Shi's mind about what station was "Yuncheng Station".
"The post station," Xing Bi said, "is similar to the service areas we see on those highways, but on a much larger scale."
"Is it like an enhanced version of Mr. Li Sanye's business?" Qiu Shi asked.
"Precise." Xing Bi said.
"Would you like to go in and take a look?" Qiu Shi asked.
"It may not be easy to get away if we don't go in," Xing Bi said, "Go in and take a look."
They must go in. This place is quite far from Yuncheng, but in Li Feng's "throughout" plan, it is considered a middle ground, a location where the situation must be clearly understood.
Xing Bi turned right into the street ahead.
When the street scene appeared in front of the car, Qiu Shi was stunned: "Fuck."
The building was dilapidated, the ground was also dilapidated, but there were signs of various sizes hanging on the doors of the houses on both sides, there were people inside and outside the houses, and there were several cars parked in the middle of the street.
Apart from the cars and signs, this place looks like returning to the outer city of Yuncheng, and is very similar to the refugee market.
But the expressions on the faces of those who could see clearly were completely different.
This is definitely not a place where you can travel freely.
"Trading, medicine, food, accommodation..." Qiu Shi read the signs one by one in a low voice, "It's quite comprehensive, there's also medicine?"
"Let's stay at the hotel." Xing Bi parked the car in front of the sign that said Stay at the Hotel.
There were several people sitting on chairs at the door. When the car stopped, several people stared at them, but no one stood up or spoke.
"Stay in a hotel?" Qiu Shi asked.
"There is a biological organism in here," Xing Bi said, "Let's wait and see if we can find out anything."
"Yeah." Qiu Shi responded and opened the car door.
When he got off the car, the feeling of being stared at became even stronger. Qiu Shi looked around and saw people in the buildings on both sides and behind the windows. He didn't even need a map because he could see the tattered curtains shaking with his naked eyes.
The people staring at them didn't mind being discovered by them. In Qiu Shi's opinion, this was also a deterrent.
However, as they walked towards the house, people nearby slowly gathered around but did not come closer.
There was no light on in the hotel, and the light was very dim. It was impossible to see how many people were inside from the outside. If it weren't for the small bright spot he could see on the map, Qiu Shi would have been shocked when he entered the room.
The three tables were full of people.
Qiu Shi calmed himself down, and after his eyes adjusted to the light, he quickly scanned the area.
"What are you looking at!" Someone slammed the table and yelled.
Qiu Shi didn't say anything or look at him. He just turned his head and walked to the bar in the corner with Xing Bi.
A man stood up behind the bar. He had a long, neatly combed beard, but his eyes were a little dazed, as if he had just been woken up. However, before Qiu Shi came in, he had seen this location on the map and knew that this person had just walked over.
Quite pretentious.
"Want to stay in a hotel?" Hu Zi asked.
"Yeah." Xing Bi responded.
"How long will you stay?" Hu Zi asked, "How many people?"
"Two people," Xing Bi said, "let's go in the afternoon."
Hu Zi knocked on the table.
Xing Bi took out a metal thing from his pocket and placed it on the table.
Qiu Shi took a look at it. This was something he had brought out from the research institute before. It was a metal lighter, very delicately made. In addition to being able to light fires and looking good, it could also be used as a flashlight and could even flash strong light.
Hu Zi picked it up, looked at it, and threw it back on the table with some contempt.
Qiu Shi was just about to explain to this doomsday guy who had never seen the world, when Xing Bi picked up a lighter and pressed it against Hu Zi's eyes, and several strong lights flashed.
Hu Zi was caught off guard and subconsciously dodged backwards, bumping into the cabinet behind him.
"Fuck!" he cursed, pulled out a gun from behind and pointed it at Xing Bi.
The people in the room seemed to have pressed a ready button at an instant. Almost all of them stood up, and several guns were pointed at them.
Xing Bi didn't move. He looked at the muzzle of the gun in front of him. After the flash, he threw the lighter back on the table: "We'll leave at noon."
"Big pile!" Hu Zi shouted towards the second floor.
"Here they come!" A very strong man came down from the second floor.
"Take them upstairs," Hu Zi said, taking the lighter and looking at it. "They can choose any of the two rooms."
"Come on." Dazhuan stood on the stairs and looked at them.
When Qiu Shi turned around and walked towards the stairs, Hu Zi asked from behind: "Charging?"
Xing Bi took out another charger from his bag and placed it on the table.
Hu Zi looked at it and said: "Let's go in the afternoon."
"Yeah." Xing Bi responded.
The second floor was a circle of small rooms, and there were no people there, but Dazhu took them to the door of two rooms on the side: "These are the only two rooms. You can stay in whichever one you want."
Xing Bi stuck his head in to take a look, then chose the one on the right and walked in.
Qiu Shi didn't understand why he made such a choice. There was no big difference between the two rooms. There was a bed and a cabinet in each room. The only difference was that the cabinet in the room Xing Bi chose was next to the door, while the cabinet in the other room was next to the window.
The windows all faced the street and we could see their cars parked on the street.
"What are we doing now?" Qiu Shi asked, seeing that no one was approaching their house on the map.
"Wait for two minutes and go out for a walk and eat something," Xing Bi whispered, "and see if anyone comes to see us."
"Yeah." Qiu Shi nodded. From the window, he could see someone in the window of the building opposite, looking at them. The map showed that it was a biochemical being. There was also a human in the room. He turned his head and asked, "Can he hear us talking?"
"We can't hear it at this volume," Xing Bi said, "we can only watch the lip movements."
"He doesn't look friendly." Qiu Shi left the window and sat on the edge of the bed. "He's not a secret guard, is he?"
"No," Xing Bi said, "It looks like he was injured."
"Hmm?" Qiu Shi looked at him.
"It should be that he is missing a leg." Xing Bi sat next to him.
"Fuck," Qiu Shi frowned, "Should we ask him if he's willing to go to Yuncheng for repairs?"
"Probably not willing." Xing Bi said.
"The intuition of a biological body?" Qiu Shi asked.
"Yes." Xing Bi said.
After a while, they went downstairs again. Downstairs was still the same, with the boss pretending to be asleep behind the bar and a room full of unknown guests.
These people don’t look like pure vagrants. They don’t have the wildness of real vagrants, but they are definitely not refugees. Those who have knives and guns cannot be classified as refugees.
Armed peddlers, robbers, anything is possible.
When they came out of the store, they saw someone standing next to their car, holding something in his hand and fiddling with the door of the trailer at the back.
"Hey!" Qiu Shi shouted.
The man turned his head and looked at him. He did not feel guilty about being caught as a thief. Instead, he turned around and walked towards them. There were also people surrounding him. They must be in the same group with this man.
"I've never seen this logo before," the leader looked at their car, "nor have I seen a car like this before. Where did it come from?"
At first, Qiu Shi thought these people were the store's thugs, but after hearing this man's question, he felt that it was not the case. The people in the store were not interested in their cars or the things in the cars.
Even if they were interested, they wouldn't ask so many questions. It would be more likely that they would kill them both and then slowly rob them.
"It's none of your business." said Qiu Shi.
Three of the people surrounding them moved their arms. Before they could complete the action, Qiu Shi pulled out a gun from the gun bag on his leg, raised his hand and punched the shoulder of the person closest to him with the butt of the gun and his fist.
The gun in the man's hand fell to the ground before he could even raise it.
At the same time, Qiu Shi's gun was pointed at his head.
"Whoever dares to touch my stuff," Qiu Shi said, "bring a spare head with you!"
The leader raised his hand to stop the other two who wanted to attack, and looked at Qiu Shi: "One is a hidden guard, and the other is a strengthened human, they are quite powerful."
"Get lost." Qiu Shi's face showed no expression, but his heart was slightly turbulent.
It wasn't difficult to tell that Xing Bi was a hidden guard. He could tell sometimes because of his different temperament, but this person also saw that he had been strengthened... He controlled his eyes and didn't look in Xing Bi's direction.
Enhanced humans do exist in the outside world, but they are not common. When they first went to Donglin, the vagrants had already been transformed. Their transformation was very rough and could be seen at the back of the neck. It was also unstable. Director Wu said that they could easily die suddenly.
Yuncheng's reinforcement technology is very advanced. Qiu Shi didn't even have a scar on the back of his neck. He didn't know how this person saw it. The group of people reluctantly retreated slowly, and Qiu Shi exchanged a glance with Xing Bi.
"Too fast." Xing Bi said.
"Huh?" Qiu Shi was stunned.
"Your speed," Xing Bi said, "exceeds that of an average human, so it can be seen."
"Fuck." Qiu Shi frowned. He didn't expect the answer to be so obvious. "What about you? You didn't do anything."
"I can feel it through my biochemical body energy." Xing Bi said, turning around and walking towards the store with a "dining" sign.
"Is there a biochemical being behind them?" Qiu Shi said, "Or are they sent by the biochemical being to spy on the situation?"
"It's a bit strange here," Xing Bi said, "Even if most people can sense that you're fast, they rarely think directly that you've been strengthened."
Qiu Shi was silent for a while, summarizing his feelings after entering this street in this small city.
"They don't have other purposes, do they?" he said. "There's a drugstore just where we came in. Could it be opened by our two chiefs?"
Xing Bi laughed: "Maybe."
"There are definitely more people like them in the world," Qiu Shi said, "but there are no conditions like the Yuncheng laboratory, and no one is locking them up."
"This is the place," Xing Bi said, "If Yuncheng wants to 'open up', they have to send troops to clear it."
"Or take a detour?" Qiu Shi said, "negotiate?"
"Don't negotiate, there is no room for negotiation." Xing Bi said.
Qiu Shi looked at him without saying anything.
"Does this sound familiar?" Xing Bi asked.
"Fuck." Qiu Shi laughed.
Perhaps it was because 249 and the research institute were sunk to the bottom of the sea, Yuncheng seemed to be moving in a more solid direction than ever before. Qiu Shi found that in such a short period of time, he had subconsciously begun to want to avoid war.
But when Xing Bi put these words in front of him, he suddenly came back to his senses.
just started.
It’s just the beginning.
Such a stronghold has seemingly good weapons, seemingly good combat power, humans, biochemicals, businesses, and conspiracies...
Negotiation and detour are probably impossible.
Who is Yuncheng? Why should we listen to Yuncheng
Even many vagrants still stay away from Yuncheng, let alone such a large and powerful stronghold.
Behind the restaurant sign is a house that is very clean, but you can smell a strange smell as soon as you enter the door.
Qiu Shi was reluctant to associate this strange smell with anything. Throughout his long career as a corpse collector, he had always been accompanied by this smell, as well as the fertilizer pool in the north of Yuncheng that few people knew about...
But he couldn't be sure that this was the smell of a human.
"Not all of them are human." Xing Bi whispered as he sat down at the table.
"This is not very comforting," said Qiu Shi.
"What do you want to eat?" A man who looked like the boss came over and threw a small square pet on the table.
Xiao Chong projected a picture with words and paintings on the table.
Qiu Shi looked at the little pet in some surprise. If he was not mistaken, this thing was only available in Yuncheng, and the little pet in front of him was an old version, and its functions were not as many as those that Qiu Shi and Xing Bi were using now.
But seeing something that only residents of the inner city of Yuncheng have the right to use so far away from Yuncheng still makes me feel a little uneasy.
He recognized the things projected on the desktop and all the words. If he didn't recognize them, he could look at the pictures next to them.
can.
There is a picture of a can next to it.
Fresh.
Served next to it was a leg of something unknown, roasted until it was black.
"What is this?" Qiu Shi pointed at the leg.
"Fresh meat," the boss said impatiently, "wild boar, rabbit, pheasant, bird, dog..."
"Dog?" Xing Bi asked.
"Yes," the boss pointed at the leg on the projection, "Isn't this a dog leg? We have it today, freshly killed and cooked. Do you want to eat it?"
"No," Qiu Shi replied. He didn't trust any of the "fresh" meat here. "Canned."
"Where is the dog?" Xing Bi asked.
Qiu Shi glanced at him.
"Behind it," the boss said, tapping the table, "you can't watch it if you don't eat it."
Xing Bi took out a small round box with a spring from his bag and put it on the table.
Qiu Shi had never seen this thing before. He only knew that Xing Bi had taken a bunch of small gadgets from the Security Bureau warehouse as a reserve.
The boss looked at the box and said nothing.
Xing Bi wound the spring a few times and then opened the lid.
Inside was a small doll wearing a skirt. When it started to spin, music came out of the box, and a ball made up of countless small silver pieces under the doll's feet also began to spin, and then it emitted a silver light. The whole room was covered with small silver spots of light, spinning and dancing to the music.
Several people suddenly gathered at the entrance of the restaurant and looked inside curiously.
"Exchange this for cans?" Qiu Shi couldn't help but question. This thing might not be a big deal in the eyes of Old Ancestor Xing, but Qiu the End of the World knew very well that the value of this thing was far more than two cans.
"Change the dog, a living one." Xing Bi said.
The author has something to say:
Ah, I haven’t written a single chapter of the extra story yet, but I actually have the illusion that I can keep writing﹁_﹁.
I will continue with the rest tomorrow, but I have something to go out for tomorrow, so the update will still be around 8 o'clock.
There will be a spin-off after this and it should be over.
What!
(End of this chapter)