Embers Ad Infinitum

Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong scanned around, and there were two things that impressed the residents of Shuiwei Town the most:

Everyone wears a variety of clothes, as if they come from different places, and there are many patches; the body is dirty, the hands are dirty, the face is dirty, the hair is dirty, and the clothes are dirty.

In addition to these two points, fatigue, thinness, and low height are more common things.

The townspeople took a few glances at the outsider and saw that Tian Erhe was there, so they stopped paying attention and worrying. They returned home, or moved out the stove, lit a fire to cook, or carefully moved the grain mixed with chaff. Take out a bowl, pour it into the pot, or just drink cold water, and eat half of the cold corn bread left over from noon... The whole Shuiwei town gradually filled with the smell of cooking smoke and food.

Tian Erhe noticed Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong's observation of the residents in the town, and asked with a smile:

"How? Did you see anything?"

Long Yuehong opened her mouth, feeling that it was impolite to speak directly about her impressions, so she closed her mouth again, thinking about her words.

Shang Jian Yao retracted his gaze and said frankly:

"Not clean."

"Not clean...heh." Tian Erhe laughed lowly, "Compared to you, it must be unclean."

Although Shang Jianyao, Jiang Baimian and others had rolled in previous battles, and there were many mud and stains on their bodies, they habitually wiped their faces clean when replenishing water on the way.

Without waiting for Jiang Baimian and Bai Chen to interject, Tian Erhe pointed to the middle of the square with his chin:

"Although there is no shortage of clean water in our Shuiwei Town, charcoal should be used sparingly. I read that over-cutting trees will make the land less fertile. Therefore, to prevent them from cutting trees nearby, we must go to a place far away.

"Occasionally you can get coal from the smuggling caravan, it's like Chinese New Year, you know, there is a lot of coal in the 'White Knights'.

"Oh, it's okay in summer, you can wash it with cold water. In autumn, you can only endure it as much as possible. It's better to be dirty than sick. If you can't stand it anymore, just boil a pot of water and wipe your body."

Having said that, Tian Erhe paused, and his smile became complicated:

"Besides, they are busy from morning to night every day. When they can rest, who has the energy?"

Long Yuehong suddenly remembered the training of the previous two months: He and Shang Jianyao were exhausted by Jiang Baimian's daily drills. When they got home, they just wanted to lie on the bed and do nothing.

But there is a staff cafeteria inside "Pangaea", he and Shang Jianyao can take the lunch box directly or not at all, and go to the cafeteria to eat ready-made ones without having to work hard on their own.

"No wonder." He voiced his understanding.

Seeing that Yao didn't say anything, Shang nodded silently.

Jiang Baimian glanced at him with a smile:

"I thought you would ask them why they don't use cold water to wash in winter. It seems to be able to effectively promote blood circulation and improve their resistance."

"The physique is too bad." Shang Jianyao replied seriously.

At this time, a member of the town guard with the nickname "Gouzi" ran over holding Tian Erhe's stove, carrying a small bag of charcoal on his back.

He helped light the fire very expressively, and then volunteered to join the patrol team in charge of the surrounding area, unwilling to leave.

It's not that he longs for some canned braised beef, but that compared to most of the girls in the town, Bai Chen and Jiang Baimian with clean hair and faces are more attractive to young men, especially Jiang Bai. Mian, who is tall and has long legs, has been genetically modified since the embryo. In the eyes of these town guard boys, he is as beautiful as a fairy, making them just want to hang around.

On the gray soil, the relationship between men and women is not so conservative. Even if they have only known each other for a few minutes, as long as they have the right eyes, they can get off the bed sheet. Therefore, those members of the town guard who patrolled and guarded around all held their heads high. Chest, show yourself to your heart's content.

Jiang Baimian glanced at it and was almost amused by them.

She ignored it, went to the trunk of the jeep, and took out four more military cans.

"Do you want a pot? Do you want a pot? There are bowls and chopsticks, do you want?" Tian Erhe asked with bright eyes.

"Sure, it's much more convenient than us using lunch boxes." Jiang Baimian didn't dislike it at all.

"Puppy! Come on, go and get my pot and bowls and chopsticks! Count how many people there are!" Tian Erhe immediately raised his voice.

The member of the town guard with the nickname "Gouzi" agreed quickly, and it didn't take long before he brought a black iron pot with five sets of bowls and chopsticks in it.

After helping to set the pot, he took a peek at Jiang Baimian, and said to Tian Erhe in a weak tone:

"Mayor, can you, can you stop calling me by my nickname? I'm already twenty..."

"What's the matter? I watched your dad grow up, and I still call him by his nickname!" Tian Erhe replied with a beard and stared, and then waved his hands, "Go, go, don't affect us Eat, no, talk."

Shang Jianyao kept staring at the pot, and found that the bowl inside was light blue in color with very delicate patterns, and the chopsticks were all ivory white without any flaws.

This is much better than the bowls and chopsticks of most employees of "Pangaea".

Tian Erhe glanced at him, hehe laughed and said:

"Why? Think this bowl is not big enough?"

"He thinks it's too good and delicate." Jiang Baimian rushed to help Shang Jianyao answer the question, as if he was afraid that he would give some impolite answers.

Shang Jian Yao was not surprised, and nodded to show that this was his idea.

The next second, he looked at Jiang Baimian, closed his mouth tightly, and whimpered for a while.

Everyone was surprised and dazed, he asked Jiang Baimian:

"Guess what I was trying to say just now?"

"...How can you guess this?" Jiang Baimian's expression was a little dull, and he managed to maintain a smile.

"Didn't you guess right just now?" Shang Jianyao felt rather regretful.

Jiang Baimian took a breath, and slowly exhaled:

"If it wasn't for you, I would definitely think it was angry about what happened just now."

When she was talking, she was not staring at Shang Jianyao's eyes, but at the top of his head, as if she wanted to take a look.

Tian Erhe watched their interaction with a rather strange expression, and finally smiled:

"The atmosphere inside of you, it seems, seems very, relaxed and lively."

"The main reason is that his mind twitches occasionally, um, that's it." Jiang Baimian emphasized solemnly, and Bai Chen nodded with concern.

Shang Jianyao responded immediately:

"How do you know I'm not trying to liven things up on purpose?"

"... Try to keep it." Jiang Baimian gritted his teeth.

Tian Erhe laughed twice, picked up a pair of bowls and chopsticks and said:

"It's all brought back from the ruins of old world cities, there are too many similar things, and they don't have much value in themselves.

"The relic hunters have traveled over mountains and rivers, who would like to carry a cart full of dishes and chopsticks back?"

Jiang Baimian listened very carefully, and said with emotion:

"It's true that there are still many things buried in the ruins of cities in the old world. Well... not being used at the moment doesn't mean it's worthless."

While talking, Jiang Baimian poured five cans into the pot.

"Mayor, before you heat up the can, can you tell me something about the old world, and what happened to you back then?" Jiang Baimian casually threw the empty shell of the can aside, and graciously put the burnt-yellow to black can on the side. Ye Ziyan handed it to Tian Erhe.

Tian Erhe took Ye Ziyan and lit it with the charcoal fire in the stove.

After Meimei took a sip, Tian Erhe half-closed his eyes and said:

"My biggest wish now is to be able to smoke three times a year, and this is the second time this year."

After sighing, he looked around, showing an expression of memory:

"When the old world was destroyed, I was only in my early 10s, and I was, oh, a primary school student."

"My mother is a teacher in a junior high school in the city, and my father is an employee of a government unit. At that time, the winter vacation was just over, and the weather was a little bit colder than it should be now, maybe more than a little. I don't remember why, maybe it was the junior high school holiday. Chi, and my dad gets busier as the end of the year approaches, and no one is watching me at home, so they took advantage of the weekend to send me to my grandfather's house, which is in the village not far from Shuiwei Town.

"I remember very clearly that they said, wait another eight days, and they will come to pick me up with my grandpa and grandma back to the city for the New Year.

"Oh, back then, I was wild, running around in the village, but I still felt homesick every night, and I would look at the calendar, counting the days left, my parents would come to pick me up.

"On the morning of the penultimate day, a few friends and I wanted to go fishing by the river, but were blocked by adults, so we could only go to play near a shallow stream. Then, when we heard the sound of an explosion, it felt like the whole ground was shaking. shaking.

"I was terrified and just wanted to go back to my grandpa's house and never go out again.

"The explosions came one after another and became more and more violent. Cough, cough, I even felt that it was accompanied by a high-level earthquake."

While Shang Jianyao, Long Yuehong, Jiang Baimian and others were listening intently, Tian Erhe stretched out his hand to warm the fire, and continued to recall:

"There was a section in the middle, I didn't know why I fainted, maybe I was photographed by the air waves generated by the explosion, anyway, I just woke up with no injuries.

"After waking up, I continued to run back and saw that the house of my grandfather's house had collapsed...they didn't have time to run out...

"At that time, my grandpa and grandma were much younger than I am now, raising chickens, growing vegetables, and doing everything.

"Hey, let's not talk about this. There were still many people alive in the village at that time. I followed those uncles, aunts, grandparents and grandparents all the way to the town. There are still many intact houses in the town, but we didn't choose them. Here, because there is open space, you can temporarily live in tents without worrying about the house collapsing.

"At that time, the communication was also cut off, there was no signal, everyone was waiting here, waiting for rescue, waiting for help, but unfortunately, it didn't wait until..."

Tian Erhe's voice gradually became lower, as if until now, he still remembered the fear and despair at the beginning.

"A few uncles and aunts didn't want to wait like this any longer. They went to the supermarket, went to some people's homes, collected some food, and tried to leave Shuiwei Town and go to the city. I, I followed them, hoping to return to my father. By my mother's side, don't laugh, this is a very instinctive choice of a child.

"We drove for a while, climbed over broken roads, walked for a long time, and finally reached the city.

"Here, here, it's even more terrifying..."

Tian Erhe's eyes gradually lost focus.

He seemed to be trapped in a nightmare that he could not get rid of in his whole life.

PS: Ask for a recommendation ticket~ By the way, I will update it early in the morning and ask for a recommendation ticket for next week~