Chapter 14 Kuronuma Wilderness
It wasn't until the jeep completely drove out of the silver-white gate that Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong adapted to the light outside, lowered their right arms, opened their eyes wide, and looked out the window.
After the initial, indescribable fear, they saw a clear blue sky, white clouds of different shapes, birds changing in formation, and mountain walls shimmering with pale gold in the sun.
"Sun...... Sun!" Long Yuehong shouted loudly at the huge orange and yellow fireball in the sky.
He stared there, reluctant to look away even though his eyes stung and he shed tears.
"Don't look directly at the sun in this state, it hurts your eyes! If you really want to see it, come on." Jiang Baimian found an item from the armrest box while driving and handed it to Long Yuehong.
Long Yuehong, who was lying on the glass window, looked back and found that it was a pair of glasses with all-black lenses.
「…… Sunglasses!" He recalled the knowledge he had learned and found the corresponding noun.
"If you don't wear it, I will wear it." At this time, Shang Jianyao turned around and said.
Long Yuehong looked over and found that Shang Jianyao's eyes were red, as if he would shed tears at any time.
"Haha, are you staring at the sun too?" Long Yuehong laughed uncontrollably.
The next second, he saw Shang Jianyao snatching the sunglasses over and putting them on the bridge of his nose.
"Hey......" He didn't know whether to be angry or reflect for a while.
"There is another pair here." When Long Yuehong was about to pounce on Shang Jianyao, Bai Chen, who was in the passenger position, handed over a pair of sunglasses.
These sunglasses are more delicate than Jiang Baimian's, like two strung "hearts", and the color of the lenses is not pure black, but a hint of rose red.
"Don't break it, I spent a lot of things to get it." Bai Chen advised.
"Thank you." Long Yuehong sincerely thanked him and put on the pair of sunglasses.
With this "equipment", he can finally carefully observe the sun and compare it with the slides.
"This is the sun......" I don't know how long it took, Long Yuehong sighed, took off her sunglasses, and returned them to Bai Chen.
Shang Jianyao also retracted his gaze and thoughtfully put Jiang Baimian's sunglasses back in the armrest box.
"What are you thinking?" Long Yuehong glanced at her friend.
Shang Jianyao replied with a serious expression:
"I'm thinking, where can I get sunglasses?"
People in the underground building don't need this thing at all, only a few project teams use it, so neither the "material supply market" nor the small market in the 495-story "activity center" have ever seen this thing.
Jiang Baimian, who was driving, exhaled:
"I know you're focusing on the wrong focus."
Bai Chen smiled and said:
"When you pass by a place where wilderness wanderers live, you can go in and take a look, maybe a compressed cookie can be exchanged for a good pair of sunglasses."
"That's how I got mine!" Jiang Baimian echoed, "Why did you exchange a lot of things for you?"
"I got it from a female relic hunter, and at that time, she thought it was very beautiful and wanted to use it herself, and there was no shortage of supplies." Bai Chen recalled the original situation.
Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong didn't listen carefully, and both lay on their respective car windows, staring at the scene outside.
Whether it's the huge trees on either side or the brown squirrel that runs past by chance, they can watch with relish, and they will be amazed.
"This is different from the gray environment I imagined......" I don't know how long it took, Long Yuehong sat up straight and sighed.
"What do you imagine?" Jiang Baimian asked casually while letting the jeep jump on the bumpy road.
Long Yuehong struggled to find adjectives:
"That's right, it's ......."
Shang Jianyao turned his head and described for him:
"Dim, cold, damp, depressing, the sky is covered with dust, the sun does not shine through the dark clouds, and it is gray everywhere."
"Yes, yes! That's it!" Long Yuehong completely agreed.
Their textbooks do not describe the environment of the gray soil in detail, but only talk about the state, pollution, disease, and famine, which naturally gives them the impression that the environment is harsh on the gray soil.
Even if they occasionally mention that some places are sunny and the environment is good, they will be subconsciously ignored by the audience.
Jiang Baimian pressed his elbow on the steering wheel, looked ahead, and said with a smile:
"Maybe the old world was just destroyed, but it got better quickly, and only some parts of it are still in a similar state."
"And that also means danger, pollution, disease and aberration." Bai Chen added next to him.
"That's right......" Long Yuehong pressed her face to the car window again, enjoying the beautiful scenery of the mountains and forests bathed in the sun.
The same is true for Shang Jianyao.
Jiang Baimian saw this scene through the rearview mirror, laughed secretly, and pressed a button.
In the beeping sound, the glass windows on the four doors suddenly closed downwards.
Long Yuehong was startled and straightened her body:
"It, it......
"Can you still put it away like this?"
"Let you breathe the outside air." Jiang Baimian pretended that he was not playing a prank just now.
Shang Jianyao's posture did not change at all, as if he was enjoying the feeling of the glass window sliding over his face, which looked quite funny.
He then narrowed his eyes and took a deep breath.
"How is it?" Jiang Baimian asked with a smile.
Shang Jianyao looked outside seriously:
"It smells like fresh shit."
"......" Jiang Baimian admitted that Shang Jianyao had a keen sense of smell, but he didn't want to pay attention to him.
Bai Chen, who watched the whole process of Jiang Baimian opening the car window, interjected thoughtfully:
"Team leader, what year were you born?"
"The 23rd year of the new calendar, what's wrong?" Jiang Baimian replied casually.
"You are three years younger than me......" Bai Chen was a little shocked.
Long Yuehong was even more surprised:
"Team leader, you are only two years older than us?
"You are already D6!"
"This is the benefit of working in the safety department, danger is danger, promotion is really fast, after all, your boss, for example, I don't know when I will die." Jiang Baimian made a joke.
She paused for a moment and added casually:
"Moreover, I have made some contributions before.
"Ah, I forgot to remind you that it is important to observe the color of the air, and sometimes you have to wear a gas mask in advance."
For the next half hour, the jeep stumbled through the mountains and forests, and Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong were still like children, looking at the scenery outside, curious about everything.
Seeing that the soil in front of him gradually turned black, the surrounding trees began to thin, and the road was no longer rugged, Long Yuehong suddenly frowned slightly and said:
"I always feel that the outside environment is not right, as if something is missing......"
Shang Jianyao had already sat up straight, and said in a deep and not low voice:
"No one."
No one...... Correct! Long Yuehong patted her thigh and said:
"Yes, except for a few people in the outposts along the way, no humans have appeared!"
And the people in the outpost are undoubtedly employees of the company.
"People nearby are either absorbed by the company, or wander to places where there is food, or ......" Jiang Baimian's voice changed, "When you pass through the outpost in front and really enter the Black Marsh Wilderness, you will have a chance to meet humans."
"But that's not necessarily what you want......" Bai Chen didn't look back, and added in a low voice.
"What did you say?" Jiang Baimian asked sideways.
"Team leader, concentrate on driving!" Bai Chen restrained his emotions and shouted with a smile.
Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong fell silent, taking a look at the increasingly open scene outside the window from time to time.
I don't know how long it took, Long Yuehong suddenly asked:
"Team leader, I haven't told my family to go out to train, I won't be going home recently, what should I do?"
"Someone will be notified from above." Jiang Baimian looked at the road ahead and gently pulled the steering wheel.
Long Yuehong closed her mouth.
Inside the jeep, there was another long silence.
When I passed the edge outpost of "Pangu Creature", the terrain ahead became flatter and flatter.
The soil here is gray-black and relatively soft, and various traces crisscrossing are clearly visible on it, some belonging to wheels, some from animals, and some from humans.
The trees around the road are even more sparse, allowing people to see the black swamp in the distance at a glance.
The trunks of these trees are black, the leaves are dark green, some are very high, twenty or thirty meters long, some are very low, that is, as tall as one person, the common point is that the posture is twisted, all kinds of strange, just like dead monsters, they all look dark in the sun.
"At the edge of the Everglades, you don't need to be too careful, and when you get deeper, you must slow down and always pay attention to whether the road ahead has been swallowed up by the swamp. If you really drive in, then you will decisively abandon the car and retreat." Bai Chen took the opportunity to give a lecture, "Team leader, there is a clean water source over there."
Jiang Baimian nodded:
"Okay, take a break over there and refill some water.
"Then, while the terrain is open and not dangerous, you can change business to see Yao and Long Yuehong.
"I hope you can learn it today."
She slammed the steering wheel and drove the jeep towards a sparse woodland in the wilderness.
An underground river drilled out of the surface here, flowed for several hundred meters, and returned to the ground.
Jiang Baimian took the solar charging panel installed on the top of the jeep and the hot water kettle with a large capacity, walked to the river, and said to Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong:
"This kind of flowing groundwater is generally not a problem, but there are still two points to observe.
"One is whether there are obvious aberrations in the nearby plants, and the other is whether the creatures in the water look strange compared to their counterparts.
"Then, if possible, boil them all and put them in a water bag, and if it doesn't work, put in the 'biological cleaning tablet'."
After observing for a while, Jiang Baimian squatted by the river and filled a pot of water.
She then placed the kettle on the charged solar panel and plugged it in.
During this process, she took out a milky white plastic bottle, poured out a white tablet the size of a little fingernail cap, and threw it into the water.
This is a "biological cleaning tablet" specialty of "Pangu Bio".
Long Yuehong watched with interest from the side, as if she wanted to try it herself.
For him, who needs to go to the "material supply market" to fetch hot water every day, this kind of thing is quite new - his family has a large population, the energy rations of children are limited, and the kettle is not a cheap thing, so he can only take a hot water bottle and go to the hot water room in the market to turn on the water.
After Jiang Baimian finished his work, he stood up, glanced at Long Yuehong, and laughed and scolded:
"What you should do at this time is to take out the 'ice moss' to prevent creatures from attacking us or robbing us.
"Needless to say, Bai Chen is very sophisticated, you see, Shang Jianyao is also on guard."
Shang Jianyao, who pulled out the "ice moss" pistol and looked at the "source" of the river, suddenly spoke:
"Team leader, someone flashed over there!"
(End of this chapter)