The two brothers left the medical hospital, turned right along the path, and walked towards the main road.

Xia Lunong was carried by his brother, and saw many people along the way.

The clothes they wore were all darker in color, and there were more or less stains on the cuffs. Going up, almost everyone had a sunburned face.

They greeted each other with different accents, southern accents, southwestern accents, northern accents, etc., mixed together, which seemed quite strange.

Xia Lunong whispered in his brother's ear: "Brother, you have good relationships."

Xia Huo said: "There are only so many people in the base, most of them are familiar, and they will say hello when they see each other."

Xia Lunong looked at the base located at the foot of the mountain.

Their base is in a col on the hillside of a mountain in southwest China, surrounded by mountains on three sides, and there is only one exit in front to go down the mountain.

The buildings of the base are basically distributed on both sides of the main road, and outside the buildings are farmlands.

It is obviously a small mountain village, and there should not be many people.

Xia Lunong was curious, "How many people are there?"

Xia Huoqu said, "When I looked at the data last month, it was 3,329. I don't know how many there are now."

Xia Lunong wanted to ask again, but Xia Huoqu raised his chin and said, "We are almost there. Our home is under that big tree."

Xia Lunong looked up.

There was a small hillside a few hundred meters ahead, and there was a huge tree on the hillside. The trunk of the tree was so thick that at least three or four adult men could hug it.

The tree grew in an open space, and behind it were two small one-story buildings next to each other, which were mostly covered by the tree.

When they got closer, Xia Lunong realized that their house was better looking than the other buildings in the base.

Most of the other buildings were made of red bricks or even earth bricks.

Their house was covered with ceramic tiles.

Xia Lunong stared at the house and felt that it didn't look like it was built later.

Xia Huoqu sensed what he was thinking and said, "This was originally a natural village. When the team came, most of the houses collapsed and there was no one alive in the whole village. Later, we cleared it out and have lived here ever since. Our house was also rebuilt on the foundation of the original building."

Xia Lunong put her face against his shoulder and asked, "Brother, was it particularly difficult for you to find this place at that time?"

"Fortunately, Yan Xinian led the team. After he transformed into a prehistoric tiger, he was very powerful in combat. Not many people died during our journey. Do you still remember your brother Xinian?"

Xia Lunong nodded.

Yan Xinian was his brother's childhood sweetheart, so he had to call him brother.

This person has been someone else's child since he was a child.

Xia Lunong's eyes sparkled, "Brother, have you contacted Brother Yan?"

"We contacted each other when the disaster just happened, and then we fled here together. I was able to bring you here safely thanks to him."

Xia Lunong turned around and looked at the other house next to hers, "Brother used to live next door, right?"

"Yes." Xia Huoqu put him down, took out the key and opened the door, "At that time, we specially chose two houses next to each other so that we could take care of each other."

Xia Lunong's legs were still weak, so he stood up against the wall.

There was an open space in front of the house, and next to the open space was a huge green tree.

Their house should have been a building before, and the position of the load-bearing columns could be seen.

The house was badly damaged by the earthquake. The upper part must have been repaired later. There are only red bricks, no wall, and no tile decoration.

Xia Lunong's eyes fell on the exposed red bricks in the upper part. The house repaired in this way looked like a strange seam. It was very strange.

Xia Huoqu opened the door and led him in. "Come in first. It's almost time. You rest at home. I'll go to the cafeteria to get lunch."

Xia Lunong immediately said, "Brother, I'll go with you."

"Let's talk about it after you get well." Xia Huoqu said, "There are too many people in the cafeteria. If you want to go out, I'll take you to the mountains in the afternoon." Xia

Lunong had no choice but to say, "Okay. Let's go in the afternoon."

"You walk around the house and see what you want to add. We'll try to exchange it at the market."

Xia Lunong stayed at home for a while, and Xia Huoqu came back with lunch.

The lunch in the cafeteria of the base was still the same, rice porridge, sweet potatoes, boiled cabbage and a small portion of sour and spicy pickled radish.

Xia Lunong saw that her stomach began to sour reflexively, and she took a deep breath quietly to cover up her true reaction.

Xia Huoqu handed him the chopsticks, "Eat it all together first. I'll go out to collect in a few days to see if I can get some meat."

"No need." Xia Lunong smiled at his brother, "If others can eat it, so can I."

Xia Lunong broke off a piece of sweet potato.

This sweet potato has a white skin and a white heart, and is not the same type as the red skin and red heart.

It has a lot of fiber, a high starch content, and very little sugar. It tastes very bland and is not very filling. It fills the stomach, but it will be digested in a short while.

Xia Huoqu saw his frowning face, and his heart ached slightly. He said to him, "Take a rest after eating, and I'll take you out in the afternoon."

In fact, it was already 4:15 in the afternoon when Xia Lunong went out. The sun was setting, and there was still more than an hour before they went out.

Before leaving, Xia Lunong's brother specially wrapped him in a thin down jacket, "It's cold at night, don't freeze."

"Not to that extent." Xia Lunong protested, but still stretched out his hand obediently and let his brother put on the black thin down jacket for him.

The clothes were a little big, and on him, he looked more like a child.

Xia Huoqu showed some relief in his eyes, rubbed his head, squatted down and carried him on his back, "Let's go."

Xia Lunong was not very happy to let his brother carry him, "I can walk a distance by myself."

"I'll let you go halfway up the mountain."

Xia Huoqu carried him out and locked the door with a big padlock, and then walked slowly up the mountain along the mountain path.

The terrain they walked on was relatively high. Walking halfway up the mountain, they could see that there were many people working in the fields of the base, men, women, old people, and even children.

The places where the elderly and children work are mostly the terraced fields on the mountains, and most of the private fields allocated to individuals by the base are in these places.

Xia Lunong looked up at the mountain. Above the terraces and below the mountaintops were undulating bamboo forests, and on the mountaintops were tall, undulating walls. On

the three sides of the base, a wall more than three meters high and two meters wide was built with bricks. A small house was built every ten meters on the wall. That was a sentry post.

The wall almost surrounded the base into a closed loop. There was no exit except the main road in front.

The wall looked very much like the Great Wall. The people in the base also called the wall the Great Wall and were very proud of it. There

were many dangers outside the Great Wall, but this side of the Great Wall was relatively safe. After the Great Wall was built and the sentries were deployed, the people in the base were completely relieved. They no longer had to worry about being accidentally taken away by some wild beasts or insects after falling asleep at night.

Xia Lunong got all this information from the patients in the courtyard. He had not experienced the early stage of the apocalypse, so hearing this news was like listening to a story.

Now thinking back, more than 3,000 people were able to build such a base after the disaster, which was truly an amazing feat.

The two brothers climbed all the way up.

After more than half an hour, they stood halfway up the mountain.

The mountain was all terraced, and the road halfway up the mountain was quite wide. The two brothers stood side by side, looking at the scene below the mountain.

It was almost evening, and there was smoke coming out of the roofs of many houses below the mountain, and the air was filled with the unique smell of firewood.

If it weren't for the continuous city walls on the top of the mountain, Xia Lunong couldn't imagine that this was already a scene after a great disaster.

Xia Lunong turned her neck and looked around. The scenery inside the base was quite nice, especially the many green trees with deep roots and lush leaves. Each tree was like a giant umbrella.

When her eyes turned to the giant tree outside a mud brick house, Xia Lunong saw an old man carrying a ladder, leaning the ladder against the giant tree, pushing it hard, and slowly climbing up.

When he climbed to the first branch, the old man threw the rope in his hand onto the branch, tied a knot, and pulled the rope in his hand to see if it was stable.

Xia Lunong looked at the old man curiously, thinking that he was going to dry something or hang something, but what he didn't expect was that the old man put his head directly into the rope loop, kicked his feet on the ladder, and jumped down directly.

It happened in an instant. The old man put his head on the rope and jumped down in one continuous action. His movements were calm and fast, without any pause.

"Ah--" Xia Lunong took a step back in fear.

When the old man dangled on the tree, he suddenly came to his senses as if struck by lightning. While staring at the old man, he stretched his hands back and shook his arms to grab his brother, "Brother--brother! Over there!!!"

On the tree in the distance, the body of the old man hanging was still dangling.

Xia Lunong stared at the scene, his legs and feet weak.

He never thought that he would see such a scene the first time he went up the mountain.

"Don't look." A big warm hand reached out from behind him. His brother covered his eyes, leaned against his back, and repeated, "Don't look."

Xia Huoqu said in his ear and whistled loudly.

Someone was shouting something in the distance towards them. Xia Lunong had no way of making out what was going on. He only heard his brother pointing in the direction, "Over there, over there at Old Man Ye's house--"

After a moment, Xia Huoqu gently removed the hand that was blocking his view, but his hand was still on his shoulder to support his body.

Xia Lunong opened his eyes wide and looked forward. In just a few breaths, a large group of people had gathered where the old man had hanged himself.

The old man was also let down from the tree.

Xia Huoqu had never expected that he would encounter such a thing on the first day he took his brother to the mountains.

He patted his brother's shoulder gently, sighed and said, "Let's go back."

Xia Lunong nodded, asked nothing, and silently lay on his brother's back, letting his brother carry him back.

After returning, he didn't ask much, but the news that Old Man Ye had hanged himself still reached their ears.

Old Man Ye was gone, and the people in the base mourned for him. Xia Lunong didn't go, but his brother went to help, and his expression was still calm when he came back.

The two brothers didn't talk much about this matter, and it passed calmly.

Xia Lunong felt a little more worried. This era seemed to be more cruel than he had imagined.