Chapter 191
Houde City is indeed a very beautiful city.
The city resembled a large garden, with buildings dotted throughout the various landscaped areas. On the day Jiang Yunu arrived at Houde City, she had also overlooked it from the sky, but that was during the day, and she had never truly considered what this "large park" looked like at night.
——Bright.
"I thought that based on the density of buildings here, the light at night would not be very bright." She sat in Pei Ya's family's private vehicle and looked out the window.
There are flowing star-like urban public lighting on the ground, mixed with the lights of nearby buildings, like a galaxy and stars spread on the ground.
"The city's lights have been repeatedly adjusted," Pei Ya said with the demeanor of a local. "At first, some people thought lower brightness at night would be better to preserve the hazy beauty of the city's ecological landscape. But soon, others objected, saying that the city's nighttime lighting should be bright, symbolizing the glorious future of Houde City and its residents, like sparkling stars in the night sky. Too dim would be unlucky."
"Puchi." Jiang Yunu was amused by the last down-to-earth statement.
She asked, "And then?"
"Then," Pei Ya said, "to decide how bright the city's nighttime lighting should be, the entire Houde City government, including the roads department, the city public administration, the city residents' representative committee, the investors behind several major leisure and entertainment areas, and the city media—all of them gathered together. From the city meeting to the regional meetings, and back to the meeting again, they proposed proposals one after another, representatives from all parties competed to speak, and residents' opinions were collected and counted three times. The final plan was revised countless times, and the names of leaders and managers were signed again and again before the current lighting plan was born."
After hearing this, Jiang Yunu couldn't help but show an expression of admiration on his face: "..."
She had never expected that such a simple task as adjusting the brightness of a street lamp would involve such a complicated process and require so much effort from so many people.
Pei Ya cast an understanding look at Jiang Yunu's "face full of admiration" and said, "This is the upper third district."
The more a place emphasizes class and decency, the more likely it is to fall into the trap of formalism. Everyone wants to do things decently and beautifully, and to embody humanitarianism and show humanistic care with all their heart, so the final decision will be delayed.
Among a group of elegant and tactful people, there must be a relatively tough and decisive "dictator".
Jiang Yunu said: "Fortunately, becoming a civil servant was not in my career plan."
The white-haired girl said this in a joking tone, which made Pei Ya laugh too.
"You really can't," Paya said bluntly. "I can't imagine you sitting there quietly, and then being shuffled from one meeting to another. What's even more terrifying is that you find that each meeting only makes a marginal difference to the progress of the event."
Time flies by when I chat with friends and secretly talk about some "little things" about people and things that I don't like.
The drive seemed shorter.
"We're here," Paya said as the vehicle began its descent.
Ole Miss, a small local tyrant, brought Jiang Yunu to another well-known entertainment district in the city.
As soon as Jiang Yunu stepped off the vehicle, he immediately realized that this entertainment area was completely different from the Emerald Dome area. There were still no high-rise buildings here, strictly adhering to the principle of "building height cannot be arbitrarily higher than the average level of surrounding buildings, and cannot give people the feeling of being overlooked or spied on." There were only single-family houses, no more than three stories high.
Each small building is a shop, some are restaurants, some sell electronic products, and some sell daily necessities, clothes, shoes and bags.
Perhaps because Houde City is a city connected to a high-level supernatural school, elemental symbols can be seen on the exterior decorations of its buildings.
"That's not just decoration." Pei Ya noticed Jiang Yunu's gaze on the symbols, and she explained softly, "Many of these brick-and-mortar shops have real supernatural powers attached to their exterior walls, providing protection. The school and the commercial district here have a long-term partnership. Every year, teachers from the school and members of the Supernatural Association come here to check whether the protection is secure and whether the supernatural powers hidden within the elemental symbols are still effective."
Jiang Yunu was interested in everything related to elemental powers and subconsciously wanted to ask more questions. Her eyes were also attracted by the elemental symbols disguised as exterior wall decorations. As a result, the next second, she felt a black screen in front of her eyes.
——Pei Ya covered her eyes with her backhand.
And not only did he cover her eyes, but there was also an arm that came around from behind, wrapped around her shoulders, and forcibly pulled Jiang Yunu in a direction she couldn't see.
Jiang Yunu: "...I can't see it."
Pei Ya's voice drifted over from the back of her head, saying, "You've seen so much, that's enough."
Pei Ya very forcefully cut off Jiang Yunu's desire for elemental powers.
She dragged the white-haired girl, who was covering her eyes, like a kidnapper on the street, and forced her into a small building with a green peaked roof. The building had a very retro exterior, with the doors and windows even painted a warm wood color. The street-facing windows were not large floor-to-ceiling windows, but rather square diamond-lattice windows that looked like a replica of a bygone era. Numerous ornaments dotted the small pieces of glass and the wooden frame.
If Jiang Yunu really didn't want to, Pei Ya certainly couldn't kidnap her. She cooperated with the other party to some extent in her actions.
When you enter this small building, there is a physical doorbell hanging on the wooden door, which makes a crisp "ding dong" sound.
As soon as the door opened, a rich and fragrant aroma of food wafted out.
So Jiang Yunu knew without even looking that Pei Ya had pulled her into a restaurant.
The robot waiter referred to the two as "Ole Miss" and "the blindfolded lady from Ole Miss."
This name makes it clear as soon as you hear it - Pei Ya must be a regular customer of this store.
Guessing that Jiang Yunu had already entered the store and would not let go and run out of the store without a trace, Pei finally let go of his hand to continue studying the elements and defense arrangements. While returning Jiang Yunu's sight, he let the robot lead the two of them to their seats.
"It's my treat," Pei Ya said. "Do you need to see the menu?"
Jiang Yunu said very honestly: "I think I trust you more than I trust the menu."
Pei Ya now has the right to order food on her own.
According to Pei Ya's introduction when she ordered the meal, this commercial area with its rows of small buildings was also preserved by some of Houde City's more nostalgic residents.
"Going out shopping isn't popular in the First District anymore," Pei Ya said as she submitted her order to the restaurant's kitchen system. "Now, the trend is to report any needs directly to the family smart butler, and someone will deliver everything you need to your doorstep the next day. Only on extremely rare occasions do people from the First District go to stores that don't accept delivery orders and require in-person shopping to make their precious in-store purchases."
As the saying goes, "leaders lead by example, and when the top region does this, the regions ranked behind will naturally follow suit."
These commercial and entertainment areas, where people can shop and dine in person, were almost banned because they were once considered "indecent."
When Jiang Yunu tasted her first bite of food, she effusively praised Pei Ya's ordering skills and said that, besides her family, no one in the world understood her taste preferences better than Pei Ya. She then added, "Thank you to everyone who has written letters of complaint and suggestion, asking Houde City to preserve this physical shopping district. This restaurant is so worthy of preservation. If it were gone, where would I go to eat such delicious food?"
She spoke with such sincerity that her words were recorded by a robot on standby.
A moment later, the robot waiter suddenly glided over and served them a dessert that was not on the menu.
The robot waiter said enthusiastically: "This was made by the chef in the kitchen and was specially sent to us."
"This restaurant is one of the few that still uses human cooking," Pei Ya said. "That's why I like coming here."
Many of the set meals they usually eat at school are prepared and served by robots in the kitchen. While AI-generated standard dishes prepared according to standard recipes are good, compared to food prepared by real human chefs, they still seem to lack something.
Jiang Yunu felt that she tasted a flavor that she missed very much.
It's like the warm smell of human life wafting out from the windows of the densely packed residential buildings in the evening in Chat City.
There were other guests dining in the restaurant, but the seats in this restaurant were designed very reasonably. Each seat was shaded by landscape plants and had sound insulation devices, making each table a private and relaxing place where guests could gather and chat with friends.
The door of the shop was suddenly pushed open again. Even with the sound insulation on, one could feel that the environment had become a little noisy and crowded, as if several people had walked into the room.
A robot waiter slid into the kitchen and shook out a real restaurant employee.
Jiang Yunu was very curious. She couldn't help but turn her head and peek out from a landscape tree next to her seat, trying to see how the environment outside was changing.
There were several men in uniform, with insignia on their shoulders and arms.
One of them happened to be looking around the entire restaurant with a serious expression and alert eyes. She noticed someone was watching, and her eyes quickly turned sideways, meeting Jiang Yunu's, who happened to be not dodging either.
The other person's expression paused. He first realized that the person looking at him was a little girl, and the sharpness in his eyes subsided a little. Then he saw Jiang Yunu's face clearly, and she actually walked towards him.
"Are you Bi Huaishu's student?"
I am also wearing a long trench coat today. I once met Mr. Wetter Ducasse at the Floating Light Hall in the Emerald Dome area.
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