Chapter 91 Conjecture
"But the next stop of the train is likely to be here."
When they first heard the news, they didn't believe it. Later, their subordinates who were cooperating with the rescue efforts in several northern cities saw it with their own eyes, and after seeing various video materials about the train sent down from above, they began to believe it.
But even though they believed in it, they initially didn't take it seriously. After all, while it was an amazing flying car that could carry people, they had seen large passenger planes before, and that car could only carry a hundred people at a time, not as good as an airplane. This thought persisted until vending machines suddenly appeared on the train, additional carriages were added, and new stations were established.
Only then did many people see the infinite possibilities contained in this train.
Since the rainstorm and the strange changes, although the official has never announced or called the current era the end of the world in official documents, in everyone's mind, human society has indeed entered the last century.
Especially as time goes by, the living environment of human beings becomes increasingly harsh.
The shortage of supplies, the rotting corpses, the increasingly aggressive and agile zombies, the various epidemics that may break out, and the various sacrifices that will still occur even with firearms, the continuous loss of life...
Grassroots staff report new statistics every day. Looking at the number of casualties in the table, no one would not feel heartbroken.
At this time, seeing the single-digit casualty statistics reported almost every day by City A and City B, the leaders of other places were really a little jealous.
The leaders and people of the cities closest to these three cities, such as City K, are particularly jealous.
In the past few days, the leaders who have patrolled the city wall have heard the on-duty team members and citizens secretly envious in different corners. After hearing it so many times, they couldn't help but have some ideas in their minds.
In the conference room, another leader continued the previous words.
"I would like to, but we don't have you here, what can we do?"
The leader sighed and said, "It's not up to us to decide where the car lands!"
The appearance of this train and the subsequent addition of stops all happened suddenly, and they didn't know about it until it was displayed on the train's station sign. There was no room for them to discuss or even make suggestions.
"Oh, it would be great if this train could listen to public opinion when setting up new stations next time." Someone fantasized.
"Even if we listen to public opinion, it doesn't necessarily mean it will fall on us. What's the population of K City now?"
K City is originally an ancient city. In order to protect the cultural heritage and old buildings, its development has been restricted. The only industry that is slightly well-known in the country is the cultural and tourism industry.
But it is obviously not possible to rely solely on the cultural and tourism industry to support the entire city's economy.
As a result, City K has been experiencing a continuous population outflow over the years. While it originally had a population of six or seven million in the last century, recent censuses have reduced it to just four or five million. While it's relatively well-developed and has a decent population compared to other smaller cities in the province, it's still far behind the larger metropolises! If it really came down to the sheer number of people making wishes, they couldn't compete.
"But the next stop of the train is likely to be here."
A voice sounded from the corner, but because no one was speaking in the conference room at the moment, even though the voice was not loud enough, it still attracted everyone's attention.
The leaders in the conference room looked in the direction of the voice and saw a young man wearing black-framed glasses looking at them.
A young man sat in a corner with a laptop in front of him. He was obviously the newly appointed conference secretary, temporarily assigned to take notes for the meeting.
The young man's words piqued the leaders' interest. "Oh? Why? Tell me."
Bathed in encouraging gazes, the young man tapped his fingers on the keyboard a few times. The next second, a map of K City, including the three cities of ABN in the north of K City, appeared on the large screen in the conference room. The small red dots marked on it were the existing train stations.
The cursor slid across the map, and the young boy's voice rang out.
"We can see that these are the stops currently used by the train. After measuring the distance between these three stops, we found that the distance between any two adjacent stops is generally between 80 and 90 kilometers..."
"After roughly estimating the train's revenue since its inception, and based on some similar literary works I've read before, I have a guess. Perhaps the increase in train stations and carriages is related to the crystal cores of train revenue..."
"Based on the limited data we have, we can infer that the next station might be within eighty or ninety kilometers of the station in City N. Drawing a circle based on this distance range would just encompass the area north of our city..."
The young boy expressed his guess one sentence at a time. The more he spoke, the more confident he became and his voice became louder and louder.
The boy's name is Zhang Ze, a native of K City, and he went to college there. Although it wasn't a key university, it was close to home, so he could go home when he didn't have classes or on weekends.
Their school has a long history, and the buildings and facilities on campus are quite old. During the first two days of the rainstorm, due to poor drainage, the large open space in front of the dormitories was flooded, and even the sewers began to back up. Students living on the top floor even experienced days when it rained heavily outside and lightly inside.
Zhang Ze wanted to go out for dinner, but the trip was extremely difficult. So, seeing that there were no classes on his schedule, he packed up his things and took the bus home.
At that time, his classmates in the dormitory were very envious when they knew he was going home, but they never expected that the casually uttered "bye" was the final farewell.
After the incident, the most densely populated universities in K City were the first to fall. From that day on, he never heard from his classmates again. At the time, he wasn't in the mood to pay much attention. After all, while their families' situations were better than those at school, they weren't much better.
There are three generations living together in their family. Their parents and grandparents still live together. Because their grandparents are unwilling to leave their hometown because their uncle's family works in another place, they are usually taken care of by their mother, the eldest daughter.
After the mutation, everyone in the family was lucky enough not to turn into zombies, and they were even quickly transferred to a safe place. However, supporting a family of seven was not an easy task.
The day after being rescued and arriving in the ancient city, Zhang Ze went out to look for a job.
In the first few days, he followed the rescue team and carried corpses for several days. Later, he helped with material statistics for a period of time. Until a few days ago, the original secretaries of the leaders above were assigned to do other important work. The young leader in charge of assigning tasks remembered that he had a good academic background, so he sent him to be the leaders' temporary secretary.
These days, he is responsible for taking notes of meetings and issuing instructions from leaders.
The job didn't provide much in the way of supplies, and sometimes there were impromptu meetings in the middle of the night, which wasn't easy either. However, being close to the leaders allowed Zhang Ze to receive a lot of information that ordinary people didn't know. This information also allowed him to better understand the situation outside.
In addition to listening to and remembering the leaders' judgments, he would also use the information at hand to analyze it himself when he had some free time.
"...The last time a station was added, there was about a month between the train's arrival in City B. I think the next time a station is added, it will probably be a similar amount of time..."
As Zhang Ze was speaking, he looked back and saw that some leaders were staring at the big screen, while others were looking at him. He became nervous and his tongue couldn't help but get stuck.
"...Of course, all of this is just my own conjecture. There's still too little information to analyze right now. Leaders, please treat this as a joke..."
Zhang Ze lowered his head, somewhat regretting his meddling.
In fact, these were just his idle guesses, and they couldn't be accurate. What's more, there were so many people smarter than him, and they might not have thought of it. Why was a fool like him pretending to be so smart?
Just as he was regretting it, he heard a low laugh in the conference room.
"See, I told you I wasn't the only one who had this thought, right?"
Zhang Ze raised his head curiously and saw one of the sitting leaders looking at him with a smile.
The other leaders also laughed when they heard his words, "Yes, now there is a little hero who sees the same thing as you!"
The leaders laughed and said, then seeing Zhang Ze still looking confused, they explained, "You weren't at the meeting last night, so you don't know. We've discussed this issue before. The guess you just made is almost identical to what Old Yan said."
"oh."
Zhang Ze nodded blankly, his face instantly red. He was somewhat happy that someone recognized his idea, but he thought in his heart that he was indeed not the only smart person in the world, and he was still showing off his skills in front of an expert.
"However, we were quite surprised when you brought this up today. Young people really need to be bold in their thinking and actions."
The leaders didn't think he was being unreasonable or making irresponsible remarks, as he had feared. Instead, they were encouraging and continued to ask him, "Xiao Zhang, right? Since you've participated in the discussion, where do you think the new resettlement site should be built?"
Seeing a hint of hesitation on Zhang Ze's face, the leader who spoke reassured him.
"Don't worry, you can speak freely and say whatever comes to your mind. There are only a few of us here, and this isn't a national conference, so don't worry."
"Just speak up. It's okay even if you don't speak well. Young people should have courage!"
"Don't worry, I'm not asking you to make the decision, I'm just asking you to give me some feedback. If we really have to decide and take responsibility, it's up to us old guys to do it."
After hearing what the leaders said, Zhang Ze scratched his head and said with a silly smile, "Then I'll tell you. If I don't tell you well, please don't mind, leaders."
He manipulated the mouse and clicked a few times, and the part of the map on the big screen belonging to the northern part of K City was enlarged in the center of the screen.
"If I were to choose a resettlement location, I would tend to choose the industrial area in the north of the city..."
The Shibei Industrial Zone was mostly made up of factories, covering large areas. Some factories even had large worker dormitories, enough to accommodate the small number of people who initially arrived. As the number of people increased, the buffer period could be used to build additional dormitories.
The Shibei Industrial Zone has all the necessary equipment. If the resettlement site is set up nearby, it will also help with resuming work and production.
Furthermore, it wasn't too far from the granary. Once it developed to a sufficient scale, the resettlement site could even completely cover the granary. Furthermore, there was a considerable amount of arable land to the north of the industrial zone...
"...If our previous speculation about the train station setup is correct, instead of waiting for stations to be established like City N did before taking action, why not first select suitable locations for stations and build resettlement sites around possible station locations from the outset..."
…
【Author’s words】
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