Embers Ad Infinitum

After listening to Shang Jianyao's description, Jiang Baimian nodded and said nothing.

Bai Chen and Long Yuehong also suddenly felt a little heavy and didn't know how to respond.

"Which floor are you going to? Those two elevators should be available." After a few seconds, Jiang Baimian looked at the LCD screen with white characters on a blue background and said.

At this time, the numbers representing the other two elevators are displayed normally.

"The sixth floor, right? We have carefully searched the previous room. It should be the safest place." Bai Chen put forward his own opinion.

"Okay." Jiang Baimian nodded lightly and said with a smile, "Besides, even if Qiao Chu returned, he would never have thought that we would dare to stay there, which would catch him off guard."

As she spoke, she took a few steps forward and pressed the button with the hand holding the "ice moss".

Soon, the silver-black door of an elevator opened, letting out a slightly stale atmosphere.

Jiang Baimian checked it carefully and walked in first:

"no problem."

When Shang Jianyao and others entered, the elevator door slowly closed and moved up steadily.

When they left, they did not close the door to Room 605, but left it ajar.

Now, there is a whitish light coming from inside, illuminating the cracks in the metal door quite shiny.

As soon as Shang Jianyao opened the door, Jiang Baimian suddenly stretched out a hand to block him.

"There is someone inside." Jiang Baimian said in a deep voice.

"How many?" Shang Jianyao seemed to be asking how many guests there were.

Long Yuehong immediately raised the muzzle of his gun and was ready to shoot.

Jiang Baimian took a slow breath and glanced at Shang Jianyao:

"one."

"Qiao Chu is definitely not as fast as us... Those who are powerful should have rushed to the 'City Intelligent Network Control Center'... Those who are weak will not act alone..." Bai Chen quickly analyzed, "Either it is a companion All died, and the ruin hunter was looking for a place to hide alone, but what a coincidence. The ruins in this city are so big, and there are so many houses, how could it be possible to just choose the one we stayed in before? Or it was the original owner of this house, a The 'unintentional ones', after the lights came on, followed their instincts and came back."

"Yes, my reason tells me that the probability of the former is slightly equal to zero, but didn't we happen to encounter so many things along the way, and finally came here? People, you must not be harsh, and would rather be more careful." Jiang Baimian I wanted to say, "This may be because our life has not been good recently," but I was afraid of irritating Long Yuehong, so I forcibly changed my statement.

Just when she was about to give the order to change the hiding room, Shang Jianyao suddenly said:

"I want to go in and have a look."

"Well..." Jiang Baimian pondered for a moment and said, "Let's take a look. I'm also curious about the original owner of this room. Be careful."

Shang Jianyao nodded, holding the assault rifle, and cautiously entered Room 605.

Compared with when they left, there was almost no change here, except that the white tiles and tan floors reflected the light, bringing out an indescribable warmth.

After entering a certain range, Shang Jianyao could already sense where the person was without Jiang Baimian's reminder.

"He" is deep in the corridor, in the small bedroom on the right side.

Shang Jianyao stepped closer and soon saw the bedroom door open, with orange light flowing out.

On the small bed inside, there was a person lying on the surface of the blue sheets with many golden stars.

She should be a woman, with a slightly stooped body, a shriveled face, full of wrinkles, like dried orange peels, and long, messy hair, all white.

After looking at the woman, Shang Jianyao instantly understood where the white hair found on the pillow in the bedroom came from.

At the same time, he also recognized the other party as a "careless person" he had seen during his night watch.

This "unintentional person" has pulled up a messy and curled up quilt that is the same as the bed sheet, covering half of his body.

At this time, she stretched out her hands, holding this thing, and looked at it intently.

Her sleeves were pink and a little whitish, and didn't seem to fit her well.

Sensing Shang Jianyao's approach, the "unintentional person" raised his head and glanced at him, then lowered his head and looked at the booklet in his hand.

Shang Jianyao stared for a while, then walked over there with an assault rifle in hand and gentle steps.

Jiang Baimian behind him wanted to give a warning, but saw Shang Jianyao squatting down beside the bed, looking at the thing in her hand with the "unintentional person".

After thinking for a second, Jiang Baimian followed, leaned over Shang Jianyao's head, and looked at the booklet.

With her experience and knowledge, she could immediately recognize that this should be a photo album.

Each page of this photo album is made of transparent plastic and contains many color photos.

The first thing Jiang Baimian saw was a little girl.

She was dressed in furry clothes and was quite cute. She was being held by a dignified, delicate and smiling young woman, and she was crying very sadly.

At this time, the "unintentional person" flipped through the photo album and came to the next page.

And this also allowed Jiang Baimian to see the back of the photo just now.

The white there is slightly yellowish, and someone wrote a sentence with a black pen:

"When my daughter was one year old."

Jiang Baimian seemed to understand something, and looked at other photos as the "unintentional person" turned.

In those photos, the little girl is growing up, riding on a man's shoulders, being held by men and women who appear repeatedly in the photos, wearing a green monster costume with a tail, or wearing pink, which makes her skin white and tender.

Behind these photos, there is the same black handwriting.

They wrote respectively:

"When my daughter was two years old."

"When my daughter was three years old."

"When my daughter was four years old."

When I finished flipping through the photo album, the writing stopped at "When Nannan was seven years old."

Jiang Baimian read these photos in silence, raised his head, and once again looked at the "unintentional person" lying on the bed.

Her body was slightly stooped, her face was as dry and wrinkled as a sun-dried orange peel, and her hair was long, messy, and all white.

Jiang Baimian closed his eyes, leaned into Shang Jianyao's ear and said:

"Let's not disturb her."

Shang Jianyao nodded, stood up slowly, and returned to the living room area.

Jiang Baimian wiped his eyes, pointed outside and said:

"Let's change places."

Bai Chen and Long Yuehong had no objections to this.

It didn't take long before they found their temporary hiding spot again on the eighth floor.

The layout here is exactly the same as that of Room 605.

"The jeeps and armored vehicles can only be seen from the window of the restaurant. Bai Chen, you go there to monitor." After checking room 805, Jiang Baimian looked around and began to issue tasks, "Long Yuehong, you are here by the floor-to-ceiling window, observe the outside There is movement in the street. Shang Jianyao and I will take a rest for a while, and we will take turns in an hour."

"Yes, team leader!" Bai Chen and Long Yuehong each held weapons and came to the position with the best view.

Shang Jianyao didn't rest. He found a place with a jack and sat down. He took out the palm-sized speakers and various small instruments, tools, components, and circuits that he had picked up earlier from his tactical backpack.

"There's no need to be in such a hurry to repair it, right?" Jiang Baimian saw his intention.

Shang Jianyao tried the tools one by one under the glow of the fluorescent lamp, and replied:

"This is important."

"Why?" Jiang Baimian was slightly stunned.

"Don't you think you can perform better with the accompaniment of music at critical moments?" Shang Jianyao said without raising his head, "This speaker looks like it has its own memory chip, and there must be old-world music in it. .”

"...I don't think so." Jiang Baimian gave up persuading.

Anyway, she didn't think she could really rest here, because the existence of "higher heartless people" and aberrant creatures made her uneasy about Long Yuehong, a newbie.

She said she wanted to rest, but in fact she was just closing her eyes and concentrating, and she would still be distracted by sensing her surroundings.

In this case, let's do whatever Shang Jianyao wants to do.

With the physique of a genetically improved person, even if he didn't sleep for a night or two, he would still be full of energy.

While Shang Jianyao was concentrating on repairing the speaker, Long Yuehong was on guard outside and looking into the distance.

Although there was only the eighth floor here, he could still see the lights of the entire city spreading out one by one like stars.

——Although he hasn’t seen the starry night yet, he has at least seen the photos and can make corresponding associations.

After watching this for an unknown amount of time, he finally sighed:

"It's so beautiful..."

In addition to beauty, he felt that such a scene also contained a certain unique flavor, but he couldn't describe it.

After a while, Long Yuehong said sincerely:

"It's a pity that it's too low here. It would definitely be more beautiful if we could go to a high place to see it."

After hearing this, Jiang Baimian stood up and walked to the floor-to-ceiling window.

She stared for a long time, smiled and said:

“Would you like to try going to the rooftop?

"While it's still quiet, 'everyone' is being polite."

"Okay." Long Yuehong responded immediately.

"Are you going?" Jiang Baimian turned around and asked about Shang Jianyao and Bai Chen.

"Okay." Bai Chen knew that now was the stage where he could relax a little.

"I'm almost ready." Shang Jianyao stood up and stuffed all the messy things back into his tactical backpack. He only held the small blue speaker with black surface in his hand, "I wonder if the long-lasting battery can still be used. use."

"Let's go, let's go, come back and try again." Jiang Baimian urged.

They quickly took the elevator to the top floor, climbed the stairs, opened the door, and entered the rooftop.

Before they even got close to the edge of the breast wall, they saw the scene around the building:

One lamp after another is densely distributed in all directions, emitting a yellowish or white light.

Some of them are located on the roadside, some come from inside different buildings, and some are erected at high places. They are like lighthouses in the endless ocean, each lighting up an area, and they are also like the bright stars slowly flowing in the night sky.

Near these lights, there are either human figures flashing or vehicles passing by, making them more active.

"It's so spectacular..." Long Yuehong once again let out a heartfelt sigh.

Jiang Baimian, Shang Jianyao and others did not speak. They stood on the edge of the rooftop and looked at the scroll in trance.

They exhausted all they had learned and couldn't find the right words to describe it.

After an unknown amount of time, Shang Jianyao suddenly took two steps back and squatted down.

"In times like this, you have to add a song..." He put down the speaker and continued tinkering and debugging.

At this moment, in the direction of the "City Intelligent Network Control Center", there was another desolate roar that shook the sky.

While the roar was still reverberating, Jiang Baimian saw bright fire erupting from the corresponding position.

"Boom!"

A deafening explosion followed, drowning out all movement.

The gray air quickly gathered and rose upwards, like a giant mushroom.

This made the building where Jiang Baimian and the others were located couldn't help but tremble.

Shang Jianyao stood up subconsciously, walked to his companion, and looked at that place.

As the billowing fire and air flow expanded, the lights in that area flickered several times and then went out one after another.

This includes the building where the "City Intelligent Network Control Center" is located.

Immediately afterwards, throughout the city, whether it was street lights or illuminated building glass, they were extinguished area after area.

In just a few seconds, the city became extremely dark, with only the faint moonlight and starlight making the rows of buildings loom, like monsters hiding deep in a nightmare.

The figures moving behind the windows, the "unintentional people" busy outside, and the vehicles driving on the road were also swallowed up by the rich night and could no longer be seen.

The ruins of the entire city once again fell into silence.

Shang Jianyao and others stared blankly for more than ten seconds, feeling inexplicably heavy.

They didn't know how to express such emotions, so they could only continue to stare.

After a while, they subconsciously lowered their heads and looked at the bottom of the building.

In the faint light, a "careless person" crawled out of a window.

Her hair was all white and disheveled.

She climbed and jumped down with some difficulty, and soon disappeared into the shadow of the building, like an old ape.

Long Yuehong seemed to be shocked and took two steps back without daring to look any further.

Bang, he kicked the speaker Shang Jianyao placed on the ground.

The speaker suddenly made a buzzing sound.

The four members of the "Old Tune Group" instinctively turned around and looked over.

Almost at the same time, a sad and melodious female voice came from the speaker:

"Reminiscing about the past...

"The painful lovesickness will never be forgotten..."

On the empty rooftop, in the boundless darkness, in the dead city, this song echoed upwards like weeping among Jiang Baimian, Shang Jianyao, Long Yuehong, and Bai Chen who stood quietly.

Note 1: Quoted from Wan Fang, "New Love"

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