Border (1)
As the blue moon sank in the west, the wind blew across the wasteland again, carrying with it the nauseating stench of decaying corpses. Mi slung his pack over his shoulder, bow in hand. The darkest hour in the wasteland was about to begin. There were rustling sounds of small animals crawling on the ground. In just two days, these little creatures had found their resting place again, and under the cover of darkness, they were out hunting.
Mi stood on the pile of rocks, his gaze fixed on the deep darkness. The water on the mudflats had receded, leaving no trace of light. The night concealed everything, and in the distance, in the darkness, were gleaming, greenish eyes. Mi couldn't even tell if they were human or some other monster. This was beyond Mi's comprehension and piqued his interest. Mi stared into the distance, pondering for a long time, until the eastern sky began to lighten and the red sun rose. The blurry figures in the distance disappeared, leaving only emptiness. These mysterious creatures seemed to always appear at night. Mi strained to determine his direction. It was north, the same direction the fishing boat had come from a couple of days ago. East or north?
After wandering in the wasteland for almost a month, Mi had not encountered a single human adventurer. The following nights were unusually quiet, with no giant monsters to bother him and no black birds to scout. The robbers who appeared that night had vanished without a trace, and the small boat that had briefly appeared after the rain, along with its people, disappeared into the depths of the wasteland.
Aside from the constant exposure to the elements and sleeping outdoors, the journey was so peaceful that Mi felt no sense of adventure. Sometimes, Mi would pause in the wilderness to listen to the wind, but unfortunately, all she heard was the sound of the wind and the movement of sand and gravel. The monster that appeared on the first night, the continuous torrential rain, and everything that followed, all seemed like an absurd dream, reminding Mi that this was a wilderness full of danger and the unknown.
At the edge of the wasteland stood a vast city wall, a towering wall built of massive stones. Standing outside the wall, Mi was momentarily disoriented, wondering if she was seeing things. These winding, Great Wall-like walls appeared right before her eyes at the edge of the wasteland. Mi touched the huge stones, feeling the warmth of the sun on them and the rough, uneven texture worn away by the accumulated dust and gravel over time.
Mi took a few steps back, leaving the wasteland behind. Scattered bushes lay before the city wall, devoid of leaves, only brown thorns and withered trunks. The ground near the wall was grayish-white, hard as cement. Mi crouched down and touched the ground; it was smooth, somewhat like the clay of the wasteland, only no longer black.
The towering city wall stretched endlessly, its beginning nowhere in sight. It blocked the sunlight, casting a long, narrow shadow on the white ground. Mi faced the wall, over three meters high; she could probably climb it if she wanted to. Remembering the travel document in her bag, Mi decided to head north this time, following the wall until she found an entrance.
Mi walked along the city wall for most of the day, and darkness fell again. She began to wonder if the entrance was behind the wall. As night descended, Mi had to stop and rest. Taking advantage of the remaining light, she scaled the wall. Inside, it wasn't much different from the wasteland—the same grayish-white soil, with more bushes and occasionally a tall tree or two. Mi sat on the wall, contorting her body into a straight line, stretching further into the distance. The interior remained desolate. Suddenly, a sense of danger washed over her. Mi withdrew her probe and stared at the bushes in the darkness. Something there was incredibly powerful, powerful and dangerous.
The next day, Mi continued northward along the city wall. As night fell again, Mi wondered if she had chosen the wrong direction; perhaps she should have turned right and headed south. On the third day, Mi stood before the city wall, hesitating for a long time. She told herself, "Last day. If I still can't find the entrance today, I'll change direction." The sun rose high overhead again, casting no shadow beneath the city wall. The scorching sun made Mi dizzy. She mechanically moved her feet, step by step, forward.
"Halt!" A warning shout rang in Mi's ears. She looked up and finally saw an immigration checkpoint. A huge "17" was painted in black on the city wall, and a small doorway ran along the base of the wall. Mi stared at the doorway, barely a meter wide, and the three-meter-high city wall, her mind racing. The Flower Kingdom, I've finally arrived.
The entrance to the immigration area was blocked by a small wooden door. This crude contraption, made of wooden blocks bound together with rough ropes, could hardly be considered a door; it was just a few pieces of wood tied together like a makeshift wooden fence blocking the entrance. Mi crouched down and peered through the space above the door. Inside were several small houses, but no one was in sight.
"Hey, what's up?" A sudden voice from above startled Mi. She took a few steps back and then noticed a similarly tall and thin figure in leather armor atop the high city wall. Was it the person she had met that night? Mi looked at the figure above with suspicion, pondering how to answer. Before she could come up with a proper reply, the wooden gate opened, and a similarly tall and thin soldier with dark skin greeted her: "Entering the pass? Come in."
Mi crouched down and passed through the small doorway. Behind the doorway stood two soldiers, making a total of four, including those on the city wall. They were all tall and thin, with dark, sallow skin. Behind the doorway, on both sides, were layers of stairs leading up to the city wall. There was a gap in the wall, and a man in leather armor standing on it waved at Mi, revealing a mouthful of large white teeth. Mi was confused by his enthusiasm and could only wave back.
"Do you know him?" asked the soldier who had ushered Mi in.
"I don't know him." Mi shook his head.
"Did you see anyone like that on the way here?" the soldier continued.
Mi nodded and then shook her head. She pointed to the wasteland and said, "I met a lot of people in the wasteland. Most of them wore leather armor and had white circles painted on their faces. Their skin was dark, and they spoke in a gibberish that I couldn't understand." Mi described the appearance of the people on the small boat, omitting the three people she saw that night who resembled them.
Mi encountered a slight problem upon entering the country; the border guards not only confiscated her belongings but also detained her. The 17th Border Station was a vast, desolate area, the land piled high with white and yellow sand and gravel, devoid of any vegetation. The red sun on the horizon shone with a blinding red light, almost directly illuminating this nearly barren land. Occasionally, strong winds would rage, sending sand and stones flying, stinging one's face and making it impossible to open one's eyes. In this environment, the border guards had built a wall encircling the entire Flower Kingdom, with small gate towers at intervals for people to enter and exit. When Mi saw the wall from afar, she immediately thought of the Great Wall, except that the Great Wall was built amidst towering mountains, while this wall was built on a desolate wasteland. The uninhabited wasteland reminded Mi of the legendary spatial rifts.
Mi waited for two days in a tiny border cell—a tiny place with only three walls, a straw curtain, and no roof, barely even qualifying as a prison. During the day, apart from the sentries, everyone else would hide in another room to avoid the sandstorms. The temperature dropped drastically at night, and a kind sentry returned Mi's cloak from her pack. Mornings and evenings, soldiers in leather armor would bring her two hard, fist-sized, blackened loaves of bread, but wouldn't give her a drop of water. On the third day, Mi couldn't bear it any longer and asked them to cook for her. The soldier summoned the border officer, a middle-aged man with a slovenly appearance and a small mustache, who asked, "Are you the cook?"
“Yes,” Mi replied calmly, “I have been hired as a cook in the capital city of Sun City, and the gold coins are my advance payment.” In Mi’s bag were the marigold-patterned gold coins that the red-haired Anne had given her. She thought that perhaps these people wanted to steal her gold coins. At this time, Mi knew nothing about the Flower Kingdom.
The mustachioed captain pursed his lips and told a soldier to take Mi to the kitchen. This kitchen was almost the best building in the entire outpost; it not only had a roof, but the doors and windows were also intact, and the foundation was higher than the other buildings. Inside, there was a two-meter-high oven, and next to it was a bent chimney, but the chimney was broken and hanging on the wall. Mi understood a little why they always gave her blackened bread balls.
There were two shelves in the kitchen, with several bags of flour and large pieces of dried meat hanging on them. In another corner, a platform had been cut into the wall, holding several wooden buckets of water. Water was scarce at the border; a water truck only came once a month, carrying only ten buckets at a time. Seeing that she couldn't make steamed buns, Mi added a little salt to the water, kneaded a bowl of dough, covered it, and let it ferment. The daytime temperature was high, and the dough quickly rose. Mi pinched off small pieces of dough, pressed them into small round cakes, got her parcel from the guard, took out the syrup she had brought, diluted it with water, and brushed it onto the cakes. Then she went outside, built a fire in the open space, burned a pile of sand, and buried the cakes in the sand after the fire went out. Soon, the sweet aroma of wheat cakes filled the air.
The mustachioed captain, munching on sand-baked flatbread, waved for his men to bring over some meat. Mi stared at the half-eaten piece of meat—it was hard to identify—for a moment, then chopped it into palm-sized pieces, seasoned it with salt and spices, put it in the casserole Anne had prepared for her, added water, covered it, and tossed it into the sand. She then lit a fire outside the sand, and after the fire died down, the casserole remained warm from the residual heat of the sand. Half a day later, the lid was lifted, revealing fragrant, tender meat and a rich, oily broth. After two meals, the border detachment treated Mi noticeably differently. Mi offered her wooden bowl, and they all ate meat, soup, and flatbread together. It was then that Mi learned the four soldiers were named Krus, Hugh, Anto, and Kabir, from Acropolis 17 and Lincheng 17 respectively.
In front of the kitchen was a small shed-like area that served as both a woodshed and a storage room. It was supported by stone pillars on all four sides, topped with a wooden fence-like gate. Half of the shed was filled with firewood, and there were two small, waist-high platforms. It was clearly a hastily constructed structure, the platforms even wobbling. During the day, the wind and sand were strong, and the oven in the kitchen was unusable. They had to build a sand pit near the foot of the city wall to solve the problem of starting a fire.
After finishing his meal, Mi moved a pile of wood and tied it to a makeshift ladder, which he then placed on the oven. He climbed up to repair the broken chimney, which was filled with a thick layer of grease and sand. The only basin in the kitchen was used for kneading dough. Mi jumped down the ladder and searched the woodshed for suitable wood. Finally, he used a dagger to dig out a winnowing basket before climbing back up the ladder to scoop out the grime and sand from the chimney. He emptied seven or eight baskets full of trash. Even the soldier Krush, who was helping Mi, was surprised by the amount of ash accumulated in the chimney: "No wonder the chimney broke!"
"The chimney needs to be cleaned regularly, otherwise it will get clogged and no smoke will come out." Mi looked around and didn't think there was a broom there.
“Hehe,” Little Soldier Kruse scratched his head, “I broke the chimney because it wouldn’t produce smoke.”
Mi admired this desperate measure: "Aren't you afraid of choking on the smoke?" Mi put the repaired chimney back in place and found some thinner pieces of wood to tie the chimney together to secure it. She then found some long, thin branches and tied them together to make a chimney sweeping broom. The young soldier, Klush, held the newly made broom and said it was very useful, promising to sweep regularly and be a good chimney sweeper.
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