Embers Ad Infinitum

In the vague sound of reading that echoed in Shuiwei Town, Long Yuehong opened her mouth, but she didn't know what to say. She just felt that the feeling was extremely complicated and difficult to describe in words.

None of the four people spoke, and seemed to be listening intently until the jeep drove out of the gate and ran into the distance.

"What were they reading? I didn't quite hear it clearly." Jiang Baimian glanced at the rearview mirror, his tone slightly annoyed.

"There is bright moonlight in front of the bed." Shang Jianyao repeated the beginning of "Quiet Night Thoughts".

"That's it..." Jiang Baimian sighed, but did not say any more words.

She drove carefully, letting the Jeep drive quietly on the difficult-to-distinguish roads that crisscrossed the swamp.

After he was completely out of the area, Bai Chen looked ahead and said to himself:

“Part of the reason I wanted to be a full member of the company was so I could check out a lot of books.”

"It's okay..." Long Yuehong, who has lived inside the "Pangu Creature" since she was a child, doesn't think this is anything special. "In the ruins of cities in the old world, are there no books or libraries?"

Bai Chen's gaze seemed to be far away:

“There was, in the beginning, a lot, but at that time, I wasn’t born yet.

"Later, many books were moved away by powerful forces and certain people, and the remaining parts were used as firewood that was easily ignited by relic hunters and wilderness wanderers, and were chewed and torn by rats and other animals, leaving them in disgrace. Very few can be found and can read.

"There may still be a lot of books in the ruins of cities that haven't been explored much, but those places are too dangerous."

After a short silence, Shang Jianyao asked with his thoughts jumping:

"Are you literate?"

"Well, my father and mother taught me. After they died, they left me a very good teacher." Bai Chen's expression gradually softened, and the corners of his mouth curled up slightly.

But her eyes were a little divergent, as if she was sitting with her knees crossed after waking up from a dream in the middle of the night, looking out the window without focus.

Jiang Baimian glanced sideways at Bai Chen and continued to stare ahead.

She smiled and said:

“Can you please communicate louder?

"Is this bullying me for my poor hearing? I even wonder if you are going behind my back and saying bad things about me."

Long Yuehong's heart moved and she whispered:

"We all said it in front of you."

"We all said it in front of you." At the same time, Shang Jianyao responded to Jiang Baimian's "accusation."

Long Yuehong was suddenly happy:

"Haha, how about it? Do I understand you very well? I can follow your thoughts!"

"How do you know I didn't ask you to follow me on purpose?" Shang Jianyao didn't give in.

"That's right. When you go out to train, you have to pay attention to the team atmosphere. It has to be both serious and lively. Otherwise, it's easy to be overly nervous and you will crush yourself soon." Jiang Baimian commented casually, "Okay. Forget about that, let’s discuss Mayor Tian’s experience and see what useful things can be drawn from the details he described. Well, it’s mainly about the destruction of the old world.”

Shang Jianyao seemed to have already thought about it and said immediately:

“The ‘unintentional ones’ mainly appear in larger cities, and are almost non-existent in rural areas and small towns.”

"The destruction of villages and small towns looks more like a combination of war and geological disasters," Bai Chen added.

Jiang Baimian nodded slightly:

“War and geological disasters may be equated.

"Before the destruction of the old world, geological weapons may have appeared. Of course, this needs to be confirmed. It needs to be confirmed by exploring the ruins of certain cities to find corresponding information."

After hearing this, Long Yuehong said thoughtfully:

“What does the emergence of ‘careless people’ have to do with war?

"Did their emergence lead to war, or did war induce their emergence?"

"There is no way to answer this. We lack sufficient data and intelligence." Jiang Baimian smiled and said, "This will be the main direction of our old adjustment team's future work."

She looked down the road, pulled the steering wheel, and continued to ask questions to guide the team members to think:

“Why do you think ‘careless people’ mainly appeared in big cities in the first place and were almost non-existent in villages and small towns?”

"Cities are more densely populated? Is this an important communication condition?" Shang Jianyao answered based on the definition of city in the textbook.

Bai Chen said from another angle:

"The city is more important, so it's the main target?"

"It's possible." Jiang Baimian did not deny it.

The four of them discussed the corresponding issues for a while. Although they could not come to a conclusion, they all broadened their thinking and had clearer ideas about the investigations and information that needed to be collected in the future.

While the Jeep was driving neither too fast nor too slowly, Jiang Baimian asked another question:

“What do you think of the guy the ruin hunters are looking for?

"He's the one with black hair and golden eyes that the people of Shuiwei Town have met before."

Long Yuehong hissed:

“I feel like he is very strange, not only has his origins mysterious, but he is also very strange himself.

"Normally speaking, no one can win the admiration of a group of people at the same time when they meet for the first time. There are men and women!"

"Actually, I'm a little curious about what he looks like and how attractive he is." Jiang Baimian smiled and replied, "But you're right, this is indeed quite strange. And for someone who can create strange phenomena , my first reaction was to be classified into the ranks of awakened ones.”

"Why?" Shang Jianyao blurted out.

Bai Chen didn't show any doubts about the term "awakened person", and he obviously knew that such a person existed.

Jiang Baimian slightly released the accelerator and lowered the speed:

"In addition to possessing weird and terrifying abilities, awakened people may also behave strangely and differently from normal people. Well, this kind of performance is just like their abilities, and the probability of them being the same is not too high."

"Such an awakened person must have appeared in the Black Swamp wilderness not just for survival." Bai Chen looked out the window and looked into the depths of the swamp, "He may be looking for something... There may be quite a lot of secrets hidden deep in the swamp. .”

Jiang Baimian nodded:

"Indeed. Forget it, let's not talk about it. Our route does not pass north of Yuelu Station. Besides, it is too dangerous to take two novices to participate in this obviously unusual thing. We can only find opportunities to report it to company.

"Long Yuehong, Bai Chen, you can take a rest.

"Ah, ha, Bai Chen, don't rush to sleep now, tell me how to go next..."

"..." Bai Chen glanced at Jiang Baimian, a little doubtful whether this was still the extremely reliable team leader from before.

In this way, the jeep traveled through the Black Marsh wilderness, and when it was almost noon, it stopped at a concrete intersection covered with weeds.

"This is the first point of this outdoor training." Jiang Baimian opened the door and went out, pointing to the left side of the jeep.

Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong got out of the car and followed the team leader's fingers and looked over.

There was a branch road that sloped downwards. The concrete floor was cracked by clumps of weeds and plants, and there were almost no intact areas.

The left side of the road was originally suspected to be a field, but most of it has been swallowed up by the swamp. Many different species of plants grew in the remaining area; on the right side, there are three buildings surrounding an open square. One of them has collapsed, and the remaining The others are covered with ivy and other plants.

There is a large square at the end of the road. On both sides of the square are more four-, five-, and six-story buildings, but there is also a very large and tall bungalow.

Some of them also collapsed, and the rest were mixed with the green, making it difficult to distinguish them from each other.

At the end of the square, there is an iron-black double gate that can pass four jeeps in parallel. The gate is completely open, revealing rows of houses that do not look like residences.

Behind these houses, where Shang Jianyao and others could not see, several brick-red or gray-black "chimneys" rose from the ground and rose into the air, which was quite spectacular.

Their outer walls are inlaid with iron-black, very simple stairs. The higher you go, the sparser the green plants in the gaps.

After Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong observed for a while, Jiang Baimian opened his mouth and explained:

“In the future, our team will inevitably enter the ruins of cities in the old world, especially those that few people visit or have not yet been discovered. This will be quite dangerous.

"So, you have to adapt to this kind of place in advance and accumulate some experience."

"But this doesn't look like a city." Long Yuehong couldn't help but say.

Jiang Baimian laughed:

“You must start from the lowest difficulty level.

"This used to be a steel factory with a complete social structure inside, which is equivalent to a miniature city. You see, the buildings on the roadside are hospitals and radio stations.

“Well, this place has been visited many times by ruin hunters, and most of the valuable things are gone.

"You have two main tasks today:

“The first is to get some food here, whether it’s finding something that others haven’t found, or targeting the wild beasts that haunt here.

“The second is to draw a complete map and mark all key points.

"How about it, simple?"

Neither Shang Jianyao nor Long Yuehong answered, because based on their experience, they could not tell whether this was easy or difficult.

Jiang Baimian looked at the steel factory again:

"There are often relic hunters here. If you encounter them, you must learn how to deal with them, how to get along with them, and how to exchange information and supplies."

"Team leader, didn't you say that there are basically no valuable things here? What are those ruin hunters doing?" Long Yuehong asked the question in slight surprise.

Jiang Baimian laughed and said:

"Isn't there a saying? There are only three pounds of nails in a rotten ship, let alone such a big steel factory?

"If you don't get anything from other places, come here and look for it. Maybe you can bring something useful back.

"There were ruin hunters who dug up the ground before, dug out a section of the main water pipe, and then pulled it back to get some food."

Seeing Long Yuehong and Shang Jianyao nodding slightly, indicating that they had no doubts, Jiang Baimian turned sideways and said:

"Then let's get started.

"Bai Chen and I are here to watch the car. If you encounter trouble that cannot be solved, send a signal for help. If you need guidance, go back within two kilometers and use the walkie-talkie."

PS: Please vote for recommendation~

PS2: Recommend a book, "The Journey of Yu Tianxing", a book of poems and delicacies about subduing demons and demons