Fu Tianhe left without delay, leading Chen Ci out of the black market. He pushed open the secret door, turned around and said to Chen Ci: "Buy whatever you want. Today I will treat you——"
Chen Ci looked at him calmly for a few seconds, then his gaze passed over Fu Tianhe's shoulder and went behind Alpha.
Fu Tianhe was stunned for a moment. He turned his head and saw a vending machine in front of him. Several sex toys were openly placed on the shelf, and the pink packaging boxes were printed with blushing and heart-pounding shapes.
Oops! Forgot they came from the adult store!
Fu Tianhe's face suddenly became hot, and he fell silent instantly. He walked silently and quickly through the vending machines and came to the door.
——He said that treating guests doesn’t mean buying these things. Jiu Yue wouldn’t think he is a pervert, right?
Chen Ci followed him calmly.
In silence he looked over the various items, most of which were designed to comfort the recipient and came in many different sizes and shapes.
Bai Ta also provided him with a basic fund to solve the problems during the estrus period, but Chen Ci never used it.
He couldn't imagine how strange it would feel to have a foreign object close to his body, or even inside it.
Once psychological rejection arises, no matter how good the thing is, its effectiveness will be greatly reduced.
The two left the black market entrance. Fu Tianhe checked the map and took Chen Ci to the largest shopping mall in the production workshop.
The production workshop encompasses almost all of Beacon’s light and heavy industries and is an extremely important part. Most of the people living nearby are workers who master core technologies.
The six beacons are all built according to the same principles and templates. Since they need to draw energy from the seabed, the most important CPU and energy conversion area are distributed throughout the lower half, and the middle layer is responsible for information processing and storage.
Unlike the middle and lower parts which are used to maintain the basic functions of the beacon itself, the upper part mainly serves human needs and is distributed with important areas such as production workshops, water purification systems, ecological tanks, farms, and research institutes.
Although Chen Ci's travel required strict reporting and protection, he also went shopping on the top floor of Cinnabar.
However, before he arrived, the relevant personnel of the White Tower had already cleared out the entire shopping mall. The huge shopping mall was opened only for him, and all the staff were dedicated to serving him.
The store was filled with a dazzling array of merchandise, but Chen Ci had everything he needed. To him, those high-end products even seemed too low-grade.
There was no point in walking alone in an empty building under the protection of a group of people, looking at those cold, dead objects and the respectful and humble looks of the salesmen.
After Chen Ci visited once, he completely lost all interest.
But today is different.
He is no longer a distinguished Elector or Princess, but just an ordinary boy named September in the dungeon.
The first floor of the mall is a large supermarket and cosmetics and jewelry stores. Fu Tianhe took a cart and saw Chen Ci staring at it, so he asked, "Do you want to push it?"
Chen Ci nodded.
Fu Tianhe gave the cart to him. Chen Ci held the handrails with both hands and pushed the cart forward steadily.
There were a lot of people in the supermarket, mostly families coming to shop. Fu Tianhe and Chen Ci walked side by side, looking like a couple.
"Just buy whatever you want." Fu Tianhe couldn't help but say when he saw Chen Ci just walking among the shelves and looking at the rows.
Upon hearing this, Chen Ci stopped in front of the shelf full of snacks.
"Want something to eat?" Fu Tianhe laughed. September often gave him a strong sense of separation. During the journey, September was smart and capable, with quick thinking, but in many small moments, she showed indescribable cuteness, like a fool in life.
After all, she was only eighteen or nineteen years old.
Fu Tianhe: "Choose something you like."
Chen Ci: "I don't know what they taste like."
Never had it before September?
Fu Tianhe was surprised. He thought that no matter how difficult life was, there should always be money for snacks. He was poor enough, and he would buy something to reward himself after receiving his salary.
Fu Tianhe never imagined that Chen Ci had never eaten it, but rather it was because he was too rich.
Everything Chen Ci ate was carefully prepared by the royal chefs, and these ordinary "junk foods" would never make it to his table.
Fu Tianhe selected several of his favorite snacks and introduced them to Chen Ci.
"This is a little salty, and eating small pieces is very addictive. But if you eat too much, your mouth will be dry, so you need to drink more water."
"I prefer potato chips that are thinner and crispier. I just can't get enough of the thick ones."
"This brand has more air in its packaging than potato chips, and it's super expensive, but there's nothing you can do about it, because who says it tastes good?"
"Hey, you can try this plum, it's sour and sweet, quite good." Fu Tianhe said, drooling, he put the plum into the shopping cart, "No, I want to eat it."
Chen Ci put everything that Fu Tianhe introduced into the shopping cart, and it soon filled up a small pile.
He is quite interested in these junk foods with colorful packaging.
The two of them passed by the fruit area and brushed past some adults with babies. Chen Ci glanced at the baby in the stroller, unfolded the folding chair for the child on the stroller, and silently put a watermelon on it.
Fu Tianhe stared at the watermelon for a few seconds. Chen Ci judged from the eager look in the Alpha's eyes that if Fu Tianhe had not been over 1.8 meters tall and could not fit in, he would have sat in it.
The two gradually walked deeper into the supermarket and came to the meat section.
The cut meat is classified and placed in the refrigerator, waiting for customers to choose. They are all handled very cleanly and are not bloody at all like those in the market.
Fu Tianhe was just planning to buy some meat and go to the hotel to cook a meal for Chen Ci. As he was selecting, he turned around to ask Chen Ci what he wanted to eat, only to find that the young man had disappeared.
Huh?
Fu Tianhe looked around. Being tall and with a broad vision, he soon spotted Chen Ci in the nearby aquaculture area.
When he walked up to the boy, he saw Chen Ci pushing a cart, staring intently at the crabs in the shallow pond.
A couple wanted to buy crabs. They pointed to a crab in the pond and the salesperson took a net bag to catch the crab.
The crab waved the claws happily and moved quickly in the pool, avoiding the net bag. The salesperson fought wits and courage with the crab, and finally caught it after a minute or two.
Chen Ci stood nearby, watching with great interest.
"Do you want to eat crabs?" Fu Tianhe asked.
Chen Ci shook his head. He had eaten too much of this stuff in the White Pagoda. The steamed crab meat and crab roe were carefully picked out and placed on a delicate porcelain plate, topped with expensive black caviar, but it was just a side dish to his meal.
No matter how good something is, it will become tasteless if you eat too much of it, and he really didn't think crabs were delicious.
Fu Tianhe was also not interested in eating crabs because the crab meat was hidden in the shell and he didn't have the patience to peel it.
Chen Ci looked at the crabs for a while, then moved on to look at the various fish in other tanks.
Nowadays, although marine resources are extremely abundant, few people dare to eat things caught directly from the sea.
The vast majority of aquatic products are artificially raised on farms.
Fu Tianhe picked some more vegetables, and the two of them came out of the supermarket, put the things in the cupboard, and went upstairs to take a look.
There was an electronic game room on the fourth floor, which was very lively. Seeing Chen Ci looking at the door, Fu Tianhe led him in directly.
Fu Tianhe bought a basket of game coins and handed them to Chen Ci: "Come and play."
The White Tower has an entire floor of game rooms, but many things are boring to play by yourself. You need a lively atmosphere to play.
At first, Chen Ci just watched others play. There was a pair of twin girls using the claw machine. He stood by and watched the two children take turns to grab the blind boxes.
"Let's try it too." Fu Tianhe went to another machine next to him and was about to insert coins.
Chen Ci shook his head and said calmly, "If it can't catch something, its mechanical claw will loosen. It's just a waste of money to play with this."
"These are all pre-set programs. As long as you catch them enough times, you will definitely catch them." Fu Tianhe stuffed the game coins into the machine without giving any room for rejection. "Just for fun, don't worry about it."
The machine has already started, and Chen Ci can only grab the joystick and aim at the props inside.
Both times he grabbed the replacement accurately, but the mechanical claw would always suddenly loosen during the movement, causing the object to fall back.
Fu Tianhe continued to give him coins without saying anything.
Chen Ci had no choice but to keep grabbing. On the fifth try, the claw did not lose its grip halfway and it staggered to the designated spot before finally letting go.
The yellow plush substitute rolled out, Chen Ci took a step back, and Fu Tianhe squatted down happily, picked it up and showed it to Chen Ci: "Look, I really caught it."
Chen Ci instinctively calculated in his mind that the money they invested in the claw machine should be much lower than the price of the blind box itself.
But Chen Ci doesn't think the blind box is worth the price. Aren't they just some small ornaments made of PVC material?
But when he saw Fu Tianhe's excited smile, he suddenly felt that maybe he didn't need to be so utilitarian.
They are out to have fun, and they don't have to think about whether everything they do is meaningful, as long as they can have fun.
The staff came over and exchanged the blind boxes for them. Chen Ci opened the box and found a white cat inside, curled up on the cat climbing frame and taking a nap.
Very cute.
There is also a special neural adapter experience area in the game room. Chen Ci played around with the various devices silently and saw Fu Tianhe standing there.
He came up to Alpha and asked, "Do you want this?"
"I have a working one at home." Fu Tianhe pointed to the big screen in front of him playing the trailer and said, "This game has a new version. If I wasn't so busy with work, I would really like to check it out more."
Chen Ci recognized it as the fantasy kingdom of God that Shaffley played most often.
He was not surprised that Fu Tianhe also played it. The Electric Fantasy Kingdom did indeed perfectly simulate another possible world.
If he hadn't had a huge reaction to the neural adapter, he would probably have just been killing time with it every day.
Chen Ci and Fu Tianhe watched the pilot of the new version together. The area that used to be Eastern Europe emerged from the bottom of the sea, and the sea queens Sheila and Gale retreated to deeper places with countless primitive creatures.
The land that had been submerged by the sea for thousands of years had become a wasteland. Countless aquatic creatures were exposed to the air and sunlight and quickly died, leaving behind large areas of land that urgently needed to be cleaned up and developed.
The world has changed dramatically.
51 degrees 23 minutes 14 seconds north latitude, 30 degrees 6 minutes 41 seconds east longitude, the upper reaches of the Dnieper River, the strongest fortress in the world a thousand years ago, has long been eroded by sea water.
It has a name that makes countless people sigh - Chernobyl.
Countless huge vine pots cling to the "sarcophagus" made of boron layer and concrete on the outside of the reactor, where Unit 4 is buried.
Is the sarcophagus, which took the entire country's efforts to build, still in use? No one knows.
The camera finally freezes on the Bran Castle in Romania, where a pair of scarlet eyes open from a basement flowing with dirty sea water. Perhaps that is the real Dracula created by Stoker.
The screen went black, and the next second, it started to replay.
Even people who are not interested in the game can't help but become interested after seeing such a trailer.
Fu Tianhe's eyes puffed up, but he didn't have much time to play games. Compared to games, he wanted to travel with Jiuyue in the real world.
He turned to Chen Ci and said, "Let's go."
Chen Ci nodded, and the two of them walked out of the game hall and had dinner at the restaurant on the top floor of the mall. It was already seven o'clock in the evening when they left.
Fu Tianhe: "Do you want to go back directly? Or go somewhere else to play?"
Chen Ci didn't want to go back so early: "Let's go for a walk."
Fu Tianhe thought for a moment and said, "I heard from the waiter that the outer wall hanging here can see the sky. Let's go and take a look."
The production workshop is close to the inner wall of Cinnabar. There are some extended platforms on the edge of the beacon building, which are called outer wall hangings.
The two of them took a bus there. On the bus, Chen Ci sent a message to Jiang Dai and Chen Nian, telling them that he had arrived at the production workshop.
Fu Tianhe carried the things he bought, while Chen Ci opened a bag of snacks and tried to eat them.
It was a taste he had never tasted before, and it was similar to what Fu Tianhe had described.
By the time Chen Ci had finished three bags of potato chips, they had finally arrived at their destination.
Chen Ci brushed off the crumbs on his hands, took the cup of water from Fu Tianhe, and followed him out of the car.
There is a chance to see the scenery outside, and the exterior wall hangings have naturally been developed into tourist attractions. The ticket price of 20 yuan is affordable for most people, so it naturally attracts tourists.
Chen Ci and Fu Tianhe paid for the tickets and passed through the gate.
Passing through the thick porch, the view in front of me suddenly opens up. As the sun moves, the shadows cast by the wall hangings in the residential area above sometimes block this place, but now it is already dark.
The moon is bright and the stars are sparse, and the sky is high.
The scenery here is completely different from the abandoned suburbs. Everywhere you look, there is a vast expanse. The height brings an instinctive fear and a sense of unreality, making people hold their breath and grab the handrails tightly.
People's fear of heights is innate.
Even though I was so frightened that my breathing was suffocated, at some point I had the urge to jump.
This normal phenomenon, called "intrusive thoughts," happens to almost everyone.
When the beacon was first built, it was a famous suicide site. People who could not adapt to life on the beacon climbed over the railings and fell from a height of a thousand meters into the sea below.
Soon, strict security systems were installed on the exterior walls of various places. Although it may seem empty in front of you, if something sticks out, the electronic curtain wall will immediately deploy and stop the person.
The air is thin above the beacon, but humans have adapted to such heights over thousands of years. The refreshing night breeze brushes across my cheeks, bringing the moisture of the sea. The laughter of tourists can be heard from behind, like an invisible thread, holding back my flying thoughts and keeping them in this world.
Chen Ci stretched out his hand, and the stars fell between his fingers.
If you look as far as you can from here, you seem to be able to see farther and farther.
How high up does he need to stand to see the moonlight over the Greenland ice plateau again?
The waves hit the beacon base, splashing white foam. It is a lonely lighthouse in the ocean, eternally lit, becoming a beacon for mankind.
Around the beacon are scattered detection platforms. As a barrier for the beacon, they have blocked countless attacks launched by primitive creatures over the past thousands of years.
Humans are doing their best to expand the area of their living habitat, but there are limits to what they can do.
They strolled along the railings like anyone else, and no one knew that the Omega wearing the mask was the Elector of Cinnabar, the future Prince Consort.
At this moment, they were just mechanics in the Cinnabar Information Processing Area and an ordinary teenager.
As we walked, we came across a sign indicating that the area behind had been abandoned and was closed to traffic.
"Why is it sealed off?" Fu Tianhe exclaimed and looked behind the cordon curiously.
He tried to set up a cordon, but found that no one was there.
Fu Tianhe and Chen Ci looked at each other.
Alpha set up a cordon and ducked directly inside.
Chen Ci did the same thing as him, and five seconds later, the two of them appeared behind the cordon together.
"Hurry up, hurry up!" Fu Tianhe lowered his voice, and the two of them ran away quickly like thieves, far away from the crowd's sight.
After making sure that they were where no one could see them, Chen Ci raised his head and looked around.
There were no lights around, and the light from other places was blocked by the walls, making everything indescribably eerie.
The spiritual power had already spread rapidly and found out that this place was nothing but a ruin.
Perhaps due to years of disrepair and a heavy rainstorm, the entire building collapsed, with bricks piled up against the walls.
Chen Ci took a step forward and moved towards a deeper level.
There are many abandoned tables, chairs and basic utensils buried there. As you walk further away, even the hustle and bustle of the scenic spot is not very clear, and the surroundings become quiet again.
A sign fell down, and the plastic sheet was covered with a thick layer of dust. Chen Ci was about to move closer to take a closer look when he heard Fu Tianhe shout, "Jiuyue, look at this!"
Chen Ci turned his head following the sound and found that Fu Tianhe had stood on the ruins without him knowing when.
The wreckage of collapsed buildings was piled high, making it dangerous to stand on it, but for the two men who had camped for days in the abandoned suburbs and robbed a scavenger camp, such risks were not a concern.
Chen Ci looked for a foothold and crawled towards Fu Tianhe, where he saw Alpha struggling to pull out an old piano from the ruins.
Fu Tianhe took great effort to drag the piano out. He rummaged around for a while and found the tattered piano stool.
The top and outer shell of the upright piano were smashed, but the internal structure should be fine and all the keys were intact.
Fu Tianhe sat in front of the piano stool and rubbed his hands excitedly.
He placed his right hand on the keys, found the middle C, and pressed it with his index finger.
clang--
The notes immediately floated out, a little out of tune, and the timbre was also stale.
Fu Tianhe pressed all the nearby keys one by one, and the scale gradually climbed and finally dissipated in the high note.
"Let me play a song for you." Fu Tianhe recalled and groped for the location of the first melody.
"Okay." Chen Ci sat on a raised cement block nearby, took out a bag of spicy strips from his coat pocket and tore open the package.
He bent down and sniffed the smell, which was a bit pungent. Would this thing taste good?
Fu Tianhe stuttered as he played the song "Friendship Lasts Forever", but because of the off-key and wrong notes, the tune sounded more like "Never See Each Other Until Death".
"I haven't played it for a long time, and I almost forgot it." When the song ended, Fu Tianhe scratched his hair embarrassedly.
On weekdays he either worked in a factory or collected spare parts at a garbage dump. He had no time to practice piano. It is a miracle that he can still remember these melodies now.
"Do you want to try it? It's fun." Fu Tianhe made way and, as someone who knew a little bit about playing a musical instrument, extended an invitation to Chen Ci.
Chen Ci nodded, he bit another spicy strip into his mouth, took out a tissue to wipe the oil stains on his fingers and the corners of his mouth, then stood up and sat on the piano stool.
Chen Ci still found it difficult to describe the specific taste of the food called spicy strips. It was different from everything he had ever eaten. It was spicy with a hint of sweetness, and had a strong and crunchy taste. If you bit it hard, it would make a slight crunching sound.
Very cheap, but great taste.
His lips were a little red and swollen from the spiciness, and were covered with a light layer of oil. He opened his mouth slightly to let the cool air ease the spiciness. Chen Ci sniffed and placed his hands on the bass.
Music flowed from his fingertips, and the ten fingers of both hands climbed up the syllables smoothly.
Fu Tianhe was stunned when Chen Ci played the first note. Anyone with ears can tell how solid his basic skills are.
Wait a minute, Jiu Yue can actually play the piano?!
And he plays it so well! This skill must have taken years of practice!
Then he just...
Fu Tianhe's face suddenly felt hot when he thought about how he had played that piece of music in a fragmented way.
With just one round trip from the lowest to the highest pitch, Chen Ci determined the degree to which the piano was out of tune.
He lowered the tone of the original piece by half a key and changed the first note.
The melody is like rain, falling drop by drop, yet connecting into lines, pulling at someone's heartstrings.
Fu Tianhe stared at Chen Ci in a daze, and was stunned for a moment.
The boy lowered his eyelashes, his ten fingers dancing on the black and white keys. The old piano, the crooked piano stool, the music lonely enough to make people cry, the moonlight pouring down from the cracks above his head, like a spotlight of the night, falling on him.
Bits of dust float around the body, like a slowly dancing elf.
Fu Tianhe raised his hand and pressed it hard on his chest.
His heart had been pounding since the first time he saw September, and now, after more than forty days and nights, that instinctive feeling had turned into an even stronger emotion, burning and drowning him.
He never said it, but from those cold eyes, Fu Tianhe could tell that Jiu Yue should know it.
Fu Tianhe once felt that it was a bit too abrupt to confess his feelings right after they met, but now that they were traveling together and had begun to trust each other, he didn't dare to say it out loud.
The more I get to know him, the more I realize how overconfident his love is.
September was chasing the moonlight on the snowy plateau, and he was also chasing the cold moon beside him that was so close yet he dared not reach out and touch it.