Chapter 36 Chapter 36 Negotiation

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After a proper rest for half a day, early the next morning, Gu Mengran and Liang Zhao came out of the basement with some dry food and water, carrying backpacks, and headed to Ninth Street according to the route given by Zheng Yijie.

After much thought, Gu Mengran decided to solve the car problem first. As for the other little things that had nothing to do with the itching, he only needed to think about how to lie and how to make up a reasonable story.

The terrain of the mountain city is complex. Although most of the houses collapsed in the earthquake, this city has three layers inside and three layers outside, three layers above and three layers below, just like a maze.

Without a local to lead the way, Jiu Street was quite difficult to find. The one-hour journey took almost an hour and a half. Gu Mengran and Liang Zhao were sweating profusely, and there was no trace of Jiu Street in sight.

Fortunately, they were lucky. After walking for another ten minutes, they ran into a group of people holding shovels, shovels and other tools. The other party was very wary. When they saw that they were strangers, they immediately surrounded them and asked them questions for a long time as if they were checking their household registration.

After Gu Mengran explained his purpose and mentioned the agreement with Gang yesterday, the group gradually relaxed their vigilance. However, the other party did not take them directly to Jiu Street, but asked them to wait there and sent a short man back to confirm.

About ten minutes later, the man came back panting and whispered a few words into the team leader's ear. Then the leader pointed to another person in the crowd and took the two of them to Ninth Street.

It took ten minutes to go back and forth. Gu Mengran thought it was only a five-minute journey, but he had been walking for almost twenty minutes and the guide still showed no intention of stopping.

Not taking them to the base camp for safety reasons?

This is understandable. Gu Mengran was even relieved because the other party was wary.

After walking and stopping for more than half an hour, the guide led them through the ruins and streets, and a quiet and secluded city park with lush vegetation came into view.

Compared to the city, which was reduced to ruins overnight after the collapse of high-rise buildings, the situation in the park was much better. There were open lawns, lush trees, and quaint pavilions, and almost no building debris could be seen.

But the green grass has turned yellow, the leaves of the trees have curled up, and no one is resting in the pavilion.

Not too far away, shortly after entering the park, Gu Mengran and Liang Zhao followed the man down the anti-slip ramp and came to a dark and quiet underground parking lot.

As soon as they entered the parking lot, a refreshing cool breeze swept over them from all directions. Gu Mengran exhaled a breath of hot air, feeling that they had finally arrived. Just as he was about to take out a flashlight from his bag, the guide stomped his feet, and the voice-controlled light above his head lit up instantly.

The bright light dispelled the darkness. Gu Mengran looked around and his pupils suddenly contracted.

Big, very big, an extremely large underground parking lot, the kind where it would take several minutes for your shout to echo back.

Unlike the empty parking lot before, this is clearly the Ninth Street garage. There are almost no empty parking spaces in the entire parking lot, which is packed with cars.

Sedans, off-road vehicles, pickup trucks, excavators... basically all types of vehicles on the market are available here, including the bus that Gu Mengran has been dreaming about.

Gu Mengran was dazzled by the various cars and was stunned. At this moment, a hearty laugh came from deep in the garage, and a familiar yet unfamiliar male voice gradually approached with footsteps.

"Hahaha! You came today? How is it? There are a lot of cars here, right? Do you see anything you like?"

The person who came was Gang Ge, wearing his standard flip-flops and old man's vest. His bulging biceps could not be concealed even by his tattoos. Although he was dressed casually and had a smile on his face, he always gave people a feeling of majesty without even being angry.

"Brother Gang." The man who led Gu Mengran and the others greeted them warmly.

Gang walked over quickly and waved his hand at the man, "You're sweating all over your forehead. Go in and drink some water and rest for a while. Don't rush up."

"Okay!"

The man turned and left. Gang smiled and raised his chin towards Gu Mengran and Liang Zhao, "Would you like to go in and rest for a while?"

Liang Zhao frowned, obviously wanting to refuse, but Gu Mengran spoke before him, smiling and nodding, "Okay, I'm a little thirsty."

One car might be able to be negotiated in the parking lot, but four cars definitely can't. Since we are here, since the host invited us, we should sit down and have a good chat. Besides, Gu Mengran also wants to know what is hidden in this parking lot.

The person leading the way became Gang Ge. He introduced the two people as they walked, like a competent tour guide, telling them the history of the mountain city and the origin of the mountain city's air-raid shelter.

Gu Mengran was not very interested at first. He just listened casually, saying "hmm" from time to time or asking a few simple questions to show politeness.

He walked directly to the end of the huge parking lot, passed through a narrow and dim corridor, and the spacious and bright arched air-raid shelter came into view. Only then did he truly feel the wisdom and greatness of the ancestors of the mountain city.

The air raid shelter is five meters high, almost the height of two floors. The curved ceiling and walls are made of cement, and you can vaguely see the rusty steel bars. It is about six meters wide, and the ground is also smoothed with cement, which is as smooth as you can see.

At this moment, the six-meter-wide passage was compressed into two meters. On both sides of the air-raid shelter, thick cardboard was pieced together to form irregular beds, which was a hard-earned place for people to live.

The people who disappeared on the ground appeared here. Some of them sat paralyzed on the bed, fanning themselves, enjoying the rare leisure time, while others stared at the ceiling with dull eyes, as if they have not yet come out of the grief of losing their loved ones.

There were many injured among them. Some had flushed faces and seemed to have suffered from heatstroke, while others were missing limbs, obviously having been seriously injured in the earthquake but luckily escaped.

There is no joy of surviving a disaster, and not everyone is looking forward to the future. Instead, there is dullness and depression. Although there is order, despair is everywhere.

At the end of the straight air-raid shelter, Gang led them to turn right and walk into another air-raid shelter of similar size. This one was not yet fully occupied, only half of it was paved with thick cardboard, and at the end of the passage, a variety of supplies were piled up like a mountain.

It is indeed not the base camp of Jiujie, which is used specifically for storing supplies?

Gu Mengran did not hide his curiosity and kept looking around.

After walking a few meters into the air raid shelter, Gang found a random cardboard bed to sit on. He smiled and patted the bed twice, then waved to the two of them enthusiastically, "Come and sit down. This place has just been cleaned up and no one lives here yet. It's clean."

He was already dirty enough with sweat, so Gu Mengran didn't care whether he was clean or not. He walked with Liang Zhao to sit down opposite Gang Ge.

Gu Mengran's curiosity was noticed by Brother Gang. Before he could ask, Brother Gang took the initiative to explain: "Didn't I just tell you that there is a group of air-raid shelters under Ninth Street? You can also imagine it as a spider web, with all the holes connected."

"This was originally part of the Jiujie air-raid shelter. Several holes collapsed during the earthquake, cutting off the road, leaving only these two holes. We didn't live here originally, but more and more people came and it became too crowded, so we recently cleaned this place up. It looks a bit shabby now, so we'll clean it up when more people come."

After saying this, Brother Gang laughed dryly a few times.

After hearing the last two sentences, Gu Mengran realized that Brother Gang was not answering his questions, but just wanted to emphasize that life in the real Jiujie was good and not as simple as here.

Gu Mengran opened his lips slightly, deliberately showing surprise, "So that's how it is, so those people outside came to the air-raid shelter recently?"

"Yes, they are also from the mountain city. They lived outside for a while after the earthquake, until the temperature became too high and they couldn't stand it anymore, so they came to the air-raid shelter." Brother Gang explained patiently.

No wonder it looks so desolate. Gu Mengran nodded to show that he understood, and then asked casually, "There are only these two air-raid shelters left. Do you still plan to continue recruiting people? The more people there are, the more supplies will be consumed. Not everyone has the labor force."

Gang Ge's smile faded and his expression gradually became serious.

"The air-raid shelters were left by our ancestors. Every resident of Shancheng has the right to take refuge there. If supplies are gone, we can find new ones, we can plant crops, and if the air-raid shelters are full, there are underground parking lots. As long as people are still alive, there is always a glimmer of hope."

"You outsiders don't understand the unity of us mountain city people."

Gu Mengran was choked by him and smiled slightly to ease the embarrassment.

"Let's get off topic. Let's get down to business. What kind of car are you planning to buy?" Gang Ge said with a dry mouth. He looked around, took a half-finished bottle of mineral water from the bedside of the next bed, unscrewed the cap and drank it in one gulp.

The rough man who didn't care about details seemed to have no intention of getting water for the guests. Gu Mengran silently took out two bottles of mineral water from his backpack and handed one to Gang Ge.

Brother Gang took the mineral water with a smile. The next second, Gu Mengran spoke decisively: "Brother Gang, we want four cars, two buses, and two seven-seater commercial vehicles."

Gang Ge's hand holding the water trembled suddenly, and he subconsciously handed the bottle back to Gu Mengran.

Gu Mengran smiled and waved his hands, "It's just a bottle of water, not that serious."

Gang didn't refuse anymore, but he still felt like he had been handed a hot potato.

He did not immediately agree or refuse. After thinking for a while, he asked in confusion, "What do you need so many cars for? You said you have an old man, and including the kid from Emerald City, there are only four of you in total. Do you think each of you will drive a car?"

In fact, after entering the air-raid shelter, Gu Mengran's remaining doubts about Gang Ge were completely dispelled, and he could tell the truth. But it is better to be safe than sorry. After all, he was with so many children, so after weighing it over and over again, Gu Mengran chose the lame excuse he had prepared in advance.

"The surface temperature is too high, and it is easy for a car to have a flat tire when it is on the road. Also, if the air conditioner is turned on day and night, it is easy for it to break down. We need to have a few more cars in case of an emergency."

Gang's brows were furrowed, and he stared at Gu Mengran without blinking. Suddenly, he sneered, "Your excuse is untenable! Even if I give you four cars, how would you prepare them? Drive one and put the other three in your pocket?"

"If four cars are on the road at the same time, there won't be a flat tire, or the air conditioning won't break down? Obviously that's impossible. You might as well ask me for a few spare tires."

Gu Mengran lowered his eyes and deliberately avoided Gang Ge's sight. "It can be considered as gambling on luck. I bet that the tires of the four cars will not burst at the same time. There will always be one car that can make it to the next city. As for the air conditioning, we drive the air conditioning during the day, and only use the air conditioning of one car when we sleep at night. It shouldn't break down that quickly."

Even if Gu Mengran spared no effort to supplement, the credibility of this statement was still pitifully low. Gang Ge did not delve into it further, looking at Gu Mengran and asked: "Why do you have to have a big car with many seats? Isn't off-roading more attractive?"