Epoch of Twilight

Luo Yuan walked out of the registration room in a panic.

The pleasing long-legged receptionists waiting at the door glanced up and down with their beautiful eyes like autumn water, and then quickly looked away, not looking at him again.

Luo Yuan laughed at himself, took Wang Shishi who had been waiting outside, and walked towards his car. He took out his mobile phone, ready to make a call with Wang Xiaguang and meet him. Unexpectedly, the phone was already dead and turned off. Apparently, Huang Jiahui's phone call before had exhausted the last bit of electricity from the panel.

With a gloomy expression on his face, Luo Yuan put the phone back into his pocket, and it seemed that he could only contact him later.

He sat in the car with Wang Shishi and waited for an hour, but Huang Jiahui still didn't come back, and Luo Yuan didn't want to wait any longer, she probably won't come back!

He started the car and drove towards the city.

Unlike Donghu City, which is like a dead city, the entire Hedong City is filled with a strange vitality. It's not that he hasn't been to Donghe City, but now the city is completely different from the leisure and tourist city in his impression. He remembered that this place should be a bustling commercial street, but now the buildings here have been bulldozed and replaced by a large heavy industrial area heavily guarded. The sound of various machines colliding inside is deafening. It feels hot inside.

He actually passed through several industrial areas like this along the way.

There are quite few pedestrians on the road, but there is no feeling of panic and uneasiness. Instead, there is a kind of peace before the troubled times.

Luo Yuan miraculously found a real estate agency in a residential area, and he parked the car quickly. What he needs most now is a place to stay.

As soon as he walked into the store, a well-dressed middle-aged man warmly greeted him: "My name is Chen Baoqiang, sir, are you renting or buying a house?"

Luo Yuan rejected the middle-aged man's move to pour tea, and said straight to the point: "I want to rent a house with two bedrooms and one living room. I wonder if you have one here?"

"Yes, yes, of course. Our intermediary company has collected more than 20 sets, why don't you... go and see it now?" Chen Baoqiang said a little anxiously.

Luo Yuan nodded.

"Okay, just wait for me." A look of joy flashed across Chen Baoqiang's face. He took out a contract, and quickly closed and locked the iron sliding door in the store.

"Why, you are the only one in your company?" Luo Yuan looked at his locking action and asked strangely.

"Hehe, I made you laugh, I am both the boss and the only employee of the company." Chen Baoqiang smiled wryly: "You also know the current situation, before our business was mostly migrant workers, but now these people have already returned to their hometowns. The business is getting less and less, but the housing listings I receive are getting more and more, and now I can only make a living, and I will not die of hunger."

Luo Yuan felt a little sympathetic to him: "By the way, is there electricity in the residential area?"

"You just came to Hedong City, right? There was electricity here before, but it started running out of electricity seven days ago." Chen Baoqiang shook his head and explained, "It's the same in every community? Now electricity is given priority to supply industries! "

"Isn't there a nuclear power plant in Hedong next to Hedong City, why is there no electricity?" Luo Yuan asked suspiciously. The Hedong Bay Nuclear Power Plant is the first nuclear power plant in Jiangnan Province, and he visited it before.

"It's just a small nuclear power plant. What can it do? It's not even enough to supply the entire Hedong City, and part of the electricity has to be transmitted from the Three Gorges Hydropower Station. However, there seems to be a problem with the Three Gorges. Anyway, there is no electricity."

His heart trembled, once there was a problem with the Three Gorges, the impact would be devastating. This means that the most developed areas in China will fall into a terrible situation of no electricity available. Thinking that even the Three Gorges, a national key strategic protection unit, has problems, and other hydropower stations may not be spared, he feels his scalp numb.

But this was just a guess after all, Luo Yuan quickly cut off his thoughts.

Chen Baoqiang didn't have a car, so Wang Shishi had to sit on Luo Yuan's lap again.

Chen Baoqiang looked at the blushing Wang Shishi, and complimented: "This is your sister, she looks really pretty!"

After being nourished by the light blue meat these days, Wang Shishi's thin and pale cheeks have become rosy and delicate, and he can tell that he is a beauty.

"En!" Luo Yuan responded perfunctorily: "By the way, how long is it from here.

Chen Baoqiang was good at observing words and demeanor, knowing that he was being flattered, he quickly said: "This road is driven to the end, and we will arrive at the turn."

After driving for a few minutes, a mid-range neighborhood appeared in front of Luo Yuan.

At this time, there was a sudden gunshot in the distance, and the sound obviously came from a heavy machine gun.

Luo Yuan's heart tightened, and he subconsciously stepped on the brakes.

Before Luo Yuan got out of the car, Chen Baoqiang went down. He looked up, then relaxed and said with a smile: "It's okay, it's just that a few birds flew here! There are always fish that slip through the net, but after a long time got used to!"

Luo Yuan opened the car window and took a look. Several birds had already flown away, leaving only a few dots.

He was a little worried. It seemed that there were no safety hazards here!

Luo Yuan took a look at the house. The house is on the third floor, which is quite a good floor. The interior decoration is not bad, but those complete electrical appliances are a pity, because there is no electricity, they can only be used as decorations, he went to the kitchen to have a look, and he was a little surprised that the gas and running water were not cut off!

Having experienced the difficult survival of Donghu City, for him now, as long as he has a safe place with water and gas, he is already satisfied.

When the contract was signed and the bill was paid, an accident occurred.

"You collect food stamps here?"

Knowing that he was from out of town, Chen Baoqiang explained: "The money is depreciating every day, who still needs the money now! I advise you to go to the bank to exchange the money for food stamps as soon as possible, otherwise it will be difficult to buy things."

Luo Yuan frowned. He didn't expect that he would encounter such an ancient product of the planned economy era. He had only heard some older people talk about this kind of thing. He asked: "Now food stamps and money What is the exchange rate?"

"What I saw yesterday was twenty-three yuan for a catty of grain, but it will be more than that soon. Of course, you can also trade grain directly." When he was in the car just now, he saw that the back seat was full of grain , so he said.

Luo Yuan didn't want to use the precious food to pay the bill, so he thought for a while and said, "I don't have time to go to the bank now, otherwise, I will pay the bill with money, and I will exchange twenty-five yuan for a catty of food stamps, so please go to the bank. Let's go to the bank, what do you think?"

"If you're not afraid of losing money, of course you can!" He just took an extra trip and earned a little bit of money, so he naturally agreed to such a thing: "Let me do the math, six months' rent plus one month's agency fee , a total of fourteen thousand.

This kind of rent price was already extremely low even before the troubled times, and if the currency depreciation was counted, it was almost equivalent to the price of cabbage. It is ironic that the inflated housing prices that could not be resolved in the prosperous times fell directly to the bottom in the troubled times, and dropped to jaw-dropping prices.

Luo Yuan was not too surprised, he had already felt that the current rent would never be too high.

Before the troubled times, he had already withdrawn all the money he had saved in the bank, and now there are still hundreds of thousands left, which is more than enough to pay the bills.

After Chen Baoqiang left, Luo Yuan sat on the sofa, feeling the long-lost peace and tranquility, and completely relaxed his body.

No one likes a precarious life that could kill them at any moment.

He lay down for a while, stood up, and said to Wang Shishi: "Two rooms, which one do you choose?"

After Huang Jiahui was missing, Wang Shishi seemed to be in a low mood all the time, and said, "I'll choose the smaller one on the left."

After a while, she asked again: "Sister Huang, are you really not coming? What if you are still waiting there?"

Luo Yuan was silent.

Seeing Luo Yuan's expression, Wang Shishi didn't dare to ask again.

After sitting for a while, Luo Yuan brought up all the supplies in the car, but Wang Shishi wanted to help but was driven away by the agitated Luo Yuan. After everything was placed, Luo Yuan took a shower in the bathroom, but his heart always felt a little empty.

He put on his clothes, took out a pack of crumpled cigarette cases, took out one, lit a cigarette, and walked back and forth in the living room. When he smoked halfway, he quickly extinguished it, and said to Wang Shishi: "You stay at home, I will go Go outside!"

Before Wang Shishi could respond, he strode out of the room, got into the car, stepped on the gas pedal fiercely, the car spewed out thick black smoke, turned around and drove towards the gate of the community.

Even he didn't know what he was doing, maybe it was to see a person clearly, maybe there were some other things.

The car drove faster and faster. After half an hour, he had already driven to the intersection of the highway. It was already close to dusk, and the sky had gradually darkened. After such a long time, the registration of personnel had already ended, and the place seemed empty. Even the few tin houses that served as registration offices were gone.

In the deserted suburbs, there is a sense of desolation and silence. From time to time, there are various strange sounds of insects and birds in the distance, which makes people tremble with fear.

He glanced around, a look of disappointment flashed across his face, and he was about to drive back.

At this time, out of the corner of his eyes, he noticed that there seemed to be a person squatting on the side of the road ahead.

Luo Yuan's pupils shrank, he stepped on the accelerator hard, and the Santana 2000 roared unbearably, and rushed forward quickly.

When the car stopped, he opened the window and shouted, "What are you doing squatting there? Don't get in the car yet!"

Hearing this familiar voice, Huang Jiahui's body trembled and she raised her head, revealing a full-faced face.

Afterwards, her face was filled with excitement, her lips and even her body trembled non-stop, and she had mixed feelings in her heart for a moment, but when she got the words out of her mouth, she said stiffly: "What are you doing here?"

"It's getting dark, Master Wang and I are waiting for you to cook, don't hurry up." Luo Yuan leaned against the car window and said with a smile.

The emotion that was finally brewing was swept away by these words. She walked around the front of the car and walked to the driver's seat, and grabbed Luo Yuan's chest: "Do you know how many hours I have been waiting? How desperate just now. I don’t even have my daughter now, I have nothing! You will not leave even if you drive me away. You bastard!"

After speaking, under Luo Yuan's astonished gaze, she covered his lips heavily with her mouth.