Chapter 37 Chapter 37 Anle
"Your future is bright."
"The sky is bright, and there are colorful clouds on the horizon."
"The fragrance of wildflowers wafts in the wind, and faintly visible are the flickering flames..."
“…”
"Okay," Si Mu said, "open your eyes."
Then, he and Jiang Xi opened their eyes together.
Their hands joined, clasped in their palms, the crystal ball. The light within the crystal ball flickered and then went out, leaving only a smooth, transparent surface.
Now it is brighter.
Jiang Xi: "No more?"
Si Mu: “No more.”
Jiang Xi: “……!” Are you writing an elementary school composition with me?!
Her pupils gradually dilated, but Si Mu ignored her and said, "This is what I saw. Believe it or not."
"Is this future good?" Jiang Xi refused to give up.
Si Mu: “I don’t know.”
Jiang Xi: “…” Feudal superstition is unacceptable.
-
The vehicle drove to the checkpoint in Anle District, and the guard at the gate came forward to ask questions.
After seeing Si Mu show a pass to any area of Paradise Valley, he was immediately allowed to pass.
It is worth mentioning that there is a special number in the lower right corner of this pass.
The number of Si Mu’s photo is 008.
This means that when he joined the Paradise Guild, there were only 7 people before him, and he was the eighth.
Only after passing this internal checkpoint can you truly enter the comfort zone.
Human survivors living in the blissful zone of Paradise Valley are basically not allowed to go to other areas, and this area is large enough to be the largest piece of the valley surface of Paradise Valley.
But there are also a lot of people.
The number is dozens of times that of people with special abilities, including guild members.
When she saw the scene outside the car window, Jiang Xi finally understood what big and small meant.
The land here is very open, but the available buildings are quite limited.
As a result, there are long queues in front of many stores, winding around for several times with no end in sight.
Si Mu said that these are the distribution points for daily necessities, with a daily limited supply. If you come too late, they will be gone.
It is almost noon now and today's free supplies are about to be distributed, but there are still so many people queuing, which shows that the supply is far less than the demand.
However, there is also a possibility that these survivors who rely on relief will queue up again to receive it, which is why the free supplies are limited in quantity, thus creating a vicious cycle.
In addition to the free material distribution points that can be found everywhere in Anle District, there are also some shops selling daily necessities such as rice, grain, oil, and noodles, which can be purchased with tickets.
A certain amount of food coupons will be distributed during festivals and holidays. If you want more, you need to use points to redeem them.
Points are the most important transaction credentials for the survivors in the Anle Zone.
The main way to obtain it is through work. Behind the large residential area is the agricultural production base, and the industrial production area will be placed further away because the production processes of many factories will produce pollution. Although following the advice of professionals, the Paradise Valley Industrial Zone has used clean energy and production methods to the greatest extent, but waste is an inevitable product. Being farther away from the living area also makes it easier to transport these things out of the Paradise Valley.
Of course, in addition to stores that require coupons, there are also numerous fast food restaurants and grocery stores. The most commonly used currency in these stores is the Bliss Coin, the currency issued independently by the Bliss Valley base. This can also be exchanged for points earned through labor.
"Isn't this Xiao Lu?" Jiang Qian couldn't help but blurt out while holding a 100-yuan bill that Si Mu showed her and looking at the human head pattern printed on the bill.
Little...Little Lu.
Si Mu's facial muscles twitched twice. Could he just pretend he didn't hear it?
Why can Jiang Qian call Xiao Lu so casually in Paradise Valley like Xiao Zhang and Xiao Wang?
Is this what the legend says, that those who are favored are fearless?
"Where are we going now?" Jiang Xi poked her head in.
"South District Electronics Market."
Coo coo coo coo——
Si Mu: "What's that sound?"
Jiang Qian touched her stomach, then looked at Si Mu expectantly, "I'm hungry."
She winked. "Time for lunch."
Si Mu looked at the time. If it were just him, he could wait until he finished his work before eating, but Jiang Qian was with him, and he couldn't let his sister-in-law go hungry.
Doesn't that mean he didn't take good care of his sister-in-law?
According to his understanding, the fast food nearby probably includes fried chicken, burgers, Chinese food, noodles, rice noodles and other instant foods.
"What do you want to eat?" he asked.
"Hamburgers!" I haven't eaten one for a long time, and I don't know how good the chefs in Anle District are.
Jiang Xi raised the clattering banknotes in her hand and said, "Let's go spend this little Lu now!"
Si Mu: “.”
He was about to turn around at the next intersection.
There weren't many vehicles on the road, but there were traffic lights.
Specially for vehicles transporting supplies and survivors with higher living standards.
Most of them are experts and scholars from all walks of life, and some are used by internal personnel of the Paradise Guild.
It’s not so bad at normal times, but when the traffic is busy, it will cause some congestion.
There were no cars at the moment, but Si Mu still waited for the red light to turn green with great courtesy.
It was during this gap that an angry male voice cursing was heard from outside the slightly opened car window.
"I just don't understand, is your *made of f*cking gold?"
Hearing such vulgar words, Jiang Qian immediately frowned.
Outside the window, everything was gray and dilapidated, and the road was dusty. It was clearly summer with lush and flourishing trees, but she smelled the cold and lonely air of autumn and winter.
There is no green space in Anle District.
Soon, she found the source of the male voice.
There was a man and a woman standing on the side of the road, with several huge snakeskin bags of different sizes at their feet. It was obvious that they had just fled and didn't even have a place to stay.
I don’t know who he was waiting for or if he simply wanted to rest on the side of the road, but the man kept talking non-stop.
"Tell me, you're going to squander all our money. How are we going to live in the future?"
"Do you know how to live? Do you think it's the same now as before?"
The woman remained silent and submissive in response to the man's curses, and only whispered a retort when she could no longer bear it.
“This is my own money…”
The man didn't expect the woman to dare to talk back, and he became furious in an instant.
The result is predictable. The woman's resistance was met with even more furious and vicious curses.
"You have a lot of money, didn't I give it to you when we got married?"
"You just treat it as your own money and spend it by yourself?"
If it was a betrothal gift, it would be fine, but the money for the betrothal gift is completely useless here and has long since become waste paper.
Therefore, the money they are talking about should be gold, a currency that still has circulation value in the end times and that ordinary people may hold.
And it is gold jewelry, which belongs entirely to the woman.
However, even if she was right, the woman did not dare to argue anymore because she had already paid the price of talking back.
The man is angry now, and it is obvious that if she dares to talk nonsense again, she will definitely be slapped by the man.
Besides, she really... spent a lot of money, she admitted.
Just now.
Seeing that the woman stopped talking, the man slowed down his tone.
"Why don't you just show them what's wrong? What's the big deal? At worst, if you touch them a few times, will you lose a piece of meat?"
The conversation was becoming increasingly perverse, as if it was misleading, as if it was giving her a shot of prevention, telling her that integrity and morality were the least worth mentioning things, so what was the point of her sticking to them?
"What are they talking about?" Jiang Xi's face looked very ugly.
Si Mu: "Entry inspection."
Such quarrels were not uncommon. He would occasionally go to the checkpoint where ordinary human survivors were located, and was no longer surprised by such things.
Some couples or spouses will start arguing at the immigration point right after registering for entry.
Most of the quarrels are caused by the woman preferring to spend a large sum of money rather than undergo such an examination that is humiliating to her personality, and using the common property of both parties.
What is quite counterintuitive is that the woman chose to undergo such a undignified examination without paying any money, which led to a quarrel between the man and the woman on the spot. Si Mu has never seen such a thing.
"examine?!"
The dead memory revived, and she thought of what Lu Suye had said to her before. Jiang Xi's fingers unconsciously tightened, "Are you going to take off all your clothes for the inspection?"
Si Mu glanced at her and said, "Yeah."
"Isn't there a security scanner here?" Jiang Yi asked back.
From this perspective, the Paradise Valley base is quite backward.
It turned out that everything Lu Suye told him was true.
I don’t know whether he didn’t hear clearly or simply ignored this instrument specifically used to test for zombie viruses.
Si Mu: "We have medicine."
[“Check” or “Take Medicine”?]
So this is what that sentence means?
When she and Lu Suye first arrived, the entrance closest to them was the entrance for accepting survivors, and the guard at the time asked this question.
This "medicine" was developed by Lu Suxing, the director of Kule Hospital. It is a pill specifically used for health status testing.
If you are not infected with the zombie virus, this pill is no different from a sugar pill, and it can also replenish the body's energy and vitamins.
But if you are infected with the zombie virus, or there is a zombie virus lurking in your body that is ready to break out immediately, then before the virus breaks out and the body mutates, this pill will kill you in one shot and nip the infection in the bud.
Of course, these "quasi-zombies" who were unfortunately killed by the pills also have a special body collection team to dispose of them harmlessly.
The effects of the pills will take effect within 1 hour at most, and after an hour, it can be proven that they are safe for the body.
Among the survivors who came to Paradise Valley, not a single man chose to take medicine.
Without exception, all of these people are women.
Of course, if you take the medicine, you don't have to go through the undignified security process of trauma examination.
However, this will also make the male companions of women who take the pills feel that they are “enjoying” it!!
Because the price of this pill is very expensive...
After learning the reason, Jiang Xi felt an indescribable sadness in her heart.
It felt like a huge rock was pressing down on her, making it hard for her to breathe.
Even if they knew that the defenders were all people with special abilities, and that people with special abilities were abstinent, it wouldn't matter if they saw them.
But she absolutely could not accept herself standing naked in front of a strange man.
He looked her over carefully from head to toe.
If it were her, she would definitely choose to take the pill to prove her "innocence".
"Don't you have any female guards here?"
This is obviously the best solution and can protect the interests of women.
Si Mu: "There are very few female psychics."
Just as Wang Mingming said, female superpowers are extremely rare in this world.
Even if you meet one or two female mutants, they usually choose to live in a survivor shelter that is full of women.
"They don't hang around with men."
Si Mu didn't glance sideways, but the words he said were like an arrow with eyes, shooting into Jiang Qian's heart.
The speaker may not mean it, but the listener may take it seriously.
She trembled all over as if struck by lightning.
because……
She is the only woman in the entire living area of the Paradise Guild.
"arrive."
The car stopped.
At this time, Si Mu, who had not yet realized that he had hurt Jiang Ting invisibly, was about to get off the car, but saw Jiang Ting sitting in the seat blankly without moving.
"Still thinking about a couple?"
When she was looking out the window just now, her brows were almost twisted into knots.
People of the same sex tend to empathize with each other easily, either because of similar experiences or because they fear that they will become like them one day.
"You can't handle it all." Si Mu reminded.
Such examples are everywhere in Anle District.
You don't need to look to know that the man is not a man at all.
If the woman is willing to leave him on her own initiative, her life may be better.
She is young, has hands and feet, and is able to work. She can find a job in a factory. Although the points are meager, it is still enough to support herself. If she has some professional skills, her life will be even better.
There is no concept of marriage in the Anle Zone, nor is there a relationship protection mechanism. As long as they do not violate the basic survivor rules and regulations, the management of the Paradise Guild will not interfere with whatever they do.
A woman can find a new partner and start a new life.
But if she continues to stay with that kind of loser who yells and screams, is stingy and only dares to get angry at his own woman, then her fate is self-evident.
That’s right, there is a red-light district in the Anle District, the survivor shelter in Paradise Valley.
Humans without special powers do not need to abstain from sex, but in the cruel apocalypse, life is inherently oppressive and painful. The bloody lessons of history always remind us that while surrounding the enemy on three sides, we cannot kill them all. We must leave a hole for venting and give them a chance to breathe.
Therefore, the superpowered guards in the Anle Zone will choose to turn a blind eye to this.
Lu Suye's words are still ringing in my ears.
[At any time, there is always a way out for young and beautiful girls.]
She found her own way out.
The Paradise Coin in the palm of his hand turned into a sphere.
Lu Suye's big head also shrank into a ball in her palm.
Perhaps, this is one of the few ways for her to control this man now, a method of spiritual victory.
Xiao Lu was squashed flat.
But after returning to reality, she realized how weak she was.
"Am I also a useless person in your eyes?"
Jiang Xi behind him suddenly asked.
Si Mu turned around and looked at her.
Her eyes were red.
It seems that he was quite stimulated.
All along, she has been like a flower kept in a greenhouse, well protected and not at all affected by this cruel apocalypse.
The reason why she can be so "leisurely and contented" is that her life is peaceful and quiet.
She relies on the people around her, one after another, men who are so powerful that they are almost gods.
Over time, when the classes were completely segregated, she still couldn't feel the difference.
When she becomes an ordinary person without special powers and lives in an environment where ordinary people should live, and the differences in this world penetrate into every cell of her skin, she will begin to doubt herself.
What if she didn't meet them? What if she met just an ordinary man?
What's worse, if you meet a cowardly and incompetent loser like the husband of the woman just now...
So how should she survive?
She needed a reason to support her and to defeat the "fear" that she had forcibly created for a while.
Si Mu knew.
He wanted to dispel her fears and tell her that these things didn't actually exist.
Such a thing will not happen to her.
"You are not a useless person,"
Looking into her eyes seriously, Si Mu said, "If beauty is considered a kind of ability, then in a sense..."
As he spoke, the corners of his mouth turned up, and his smile became warm. "You are the most powerful person in our guild."
No exaggeration.
So, it is useful.
Jiang Xi got the answer from the only person around her.
"Thank you." She said softly.
Just think of it as him praising himself.
But instead of being comforted, I felt even more sad.
[She can make cookies!!!]
Why not mention it?
-
In the blink of an eye, we arrived at the burger shop.
You can't see it from the outside until you enter.
Jiang Xi was amazed. How could such a small store accommodate so many people?
It's even crazier than when supermarkets give out free eggs.
People were packed together like sardines in a can.
The safest way right now is for Si Mu to hold her in his arms so that the people around him will not squeeze her.
But having learned from the previous experience, Si Mu never dared to touch Jiang Qian again.
Once bitten by a snake, you will be afraid of ropes for ten years.
You choose, idol.
Therefore, Jiang Qian could only follow behind Si Mu, holding the corner of his clothes with her hands, and sticking tightly to his back to avoid being separated by the crowd.
If she had known this earlier, she would not have come in. She would have simply waited outside for Si Mu to finish buying it before taking it out.
Looking around, it seems that there is no place to sit here.
Not only that, the air was filled with the nauseating smell of hamburgers, fried chicken, French fries mixed with the sour smell of sweat.
The air conditioning in the shops in Anle District is not very good.
"Tsk! Look over there."
"Woc, is that her?!"
"That's a man, right?"
"Bullshit, I'd recognize her figure even if she turned into ash. Hiss, hiss, hiss..."
"That's her!"
"Ha, that's strange, why are you back here?"
Without realizing it, I was being stared at by several pairs of eyes.
"Excuse me! Excuse me!——"
A loud shout suddenly came from the ordering area in front.
Like some kind of warning.
This was followed by a series of violent banging sounds.
The guy who was looking for trouble, like he was driving drunk, bumped into five or six people in a row and rushed straight towards the door.
But he didn't dare to bump into Jiang Qian, let alone Si Mu who was standing in front of Jiang Qian.
And this was not his original purpose. When passing by,
A ghost hand stretched out.
Jiang Xi felt her head relax.
In the blink of an eye, her hat was knocked off.
A charming long curly hair, all scattered on her shoulders.
Jiang Qian immediately touched her hair in panic, and looked at Si Mu who had turned around in horror.
"My hat!"
That guy did it on purpose.
He shifted his gaze from Jiang Ting to the ferocious figure at the door.
But before the troublemaker could leave, he fell to the ground with a thud.
It was as if he had suddenly fallen ill and rolled on the ground in pain. His screams echoed throughout the burger shop.
Everyone was stunned by this sudden scene.
Si Mu picked up Jiang Xi's hat as if nothing had happened, dusted it off, and put it back on her.
-
To be honest, I feel a little regretful.
Jiang Xiao opened her mouth wide and took a big bite of the burger, tears streaming down her face.
The Anle District is a mess, and the food is not good.
However, she forced herself to come along and even went so far as to deceive Si Mu.
If you give up halfway, people will definitely look down on you. No matter how big the risk is, you have to bear it yourself.
So, she didn't say anything more.
After eating and drinking, it’s time to get down to business.
Si Mu drove her to the electronics trading market.
It is still shabby and crowded, like a flea market.
Jiang Xi hesitated again and again, but ultimately did not have the courage to go in, as it would be crowded.
Just one look inside at the door and she decided to back out.
The dark and narrow store corridor gave her a bad feeling.
She didn't want to go in.
Jiang Xi: "I'll wait for you here."
She was at a junction.
There are people coming and going in broad daylight.
"Okay," Si Mu said, assessing that there shouldn't be any safety issues. "I'll be back soon."
So Jiang Qian sat on the stone bench at the entrance of the market.
-
In the electronics market, Si Mu found the store that had "information" linked to the eavesdropping devices he had seen in the president's villa.
Then, ask the store owner if he has any impression of the people who bought these eavesdropping devices.
At first, the shop owner was suffering from Parkinson's disease, with headaches and fever.
With so many people coming and going day after day, how could he possibly remember?
But money talks. When Si Mu took out a few sparkling crystal-like stones and put them on the counter, the owner suddenly had an idea.
He tried hard to recall the scene of that day,
What is the result?
A medical miracle! Parkinson's is cured.
"Ohhh, I remember that day—"
The shop owner's memories became clearer and clearer, but Si Mu felt something was wrong the more he listened.
"Are you sure?" He asked seriously.
"I'm absolutely sure!" The shop owner's expression was even more resolute than his. "That's exactly the kind of clothes they were wearing. I can't be wrong!!"
When Si Mu came out of this electronics grocery store, his face was solemn.
The perception is consistent with the store owner's description.
Most likely.
So how should I answer when Jiang Xi asks me later?
It’s not easy to answer.
Forget it, I'd better report this matter to the boss first.
Si Mu made a decision.
etc.
His eyes darted across the sidewalk in front of him.
However, apart from the pedestrians coming and going in blue-gray clothes, he did not find anyone wearing camouflage uniforms like him.
There was no one on the stone bench.
There is a dynamic pink under the stone bench.
Walking closer, he bent down and picked it up. It was a long-handled plastic colored stick with a few lightly dyed pink feathers on the top. It swayed from side to side in the wind. There were also two small golden bells hanging below.
This is……
Cat teaser?
It was also the only thing on this street that Si Mu could find that was related to Jiang Qian.
Her scent still lingered on it.
As for Jiang Ting herself,
Simu's breathing stagnated.
Gone again.
Si Mu: “?”
Why say again.
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