At around nine o'clock in the morning the next day, Bai Chen drove a camouflaged jeep, carrying three other members of the "Old Tune Team" and the leader of the "Rootless" camp, Feilin, followed a caravan of five or six vehicles towards Weed City.
I don't know if it's rushing or striving for realism, but the colors of the repainted Jeep are not coordinated in many places, but it can be roughly seen that it is military green camouflage.
This is very similar to most jeeps running on gray dirt - once they bump, they either have nowhere to repair or repair casually, and they don't pay so much attention to it.
The reason why Feilin didn't take the car of his business group was because he felt that when he arrived in Weeds City, he would have to separate from his good brother Shang Jianyao, so he had to hurry up and chat for a while.
This caused three big men to squeeze into the back row of the jeep, but fortunately, the car was spacious and did not affect the riding experience.
After leaving the camp and going around to the other side, Long Yuehong finally saw the most important facilities in this area:
Water plant.
It is surrounded by greenery and has a nice atmosphere, and it seems to be well taken care of.
After passing through this water plant, a city ruin gradually unfolded in front of all the members of the "Old Tune Group".
Almost all the high-rise buildings here have collapsed, or gray or brown "mud blocks" and stubborn rusty steel bars are piled up messily, covered by withered yellow creeper leaves and various plants, only faintly visible parts.
It's like countless people who were buried alive and finally reached out their hands before dying, trying to grab something.
Compared to the ruins of the city deep in the swamp, the original appearance of the old world was completely invisible here.
Even the relic hunters have abandoned this place.
——The remaining things are either difficult to collect or worthless.
If he hadn't been into the depths of the swamp and had never seen the silhouette of the old world, Long Yuehong would have sighed at most for such a scene, but now, his mood was extremely complicated, both inexplicably heavy and sad.
"Hey......" Jiang Baimian, who was in the passenger seat, sighed "gently".
Feilin sat between Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong, looked out the window and said:
"When my grandfather was still alive, he told me what kind of tourist city this was.
"Otherwise, they wouldn't have come all the way here in an RV."
Shang Jianyao did not answer Feilin's words, and said abruptly:
"I want to play a song."
"Reminiscing about the past?" Jiang Baimian asked rhetorically with great understanding.
Shang Jianyao nodded heavily:
"Yes."
"Forget it, forget it, it will affect your mood." Jiang Baimian waved his hand, "This road is already difficult to navigate, so don't interfere with Bai Chen."
In this completely abandoned city ruins, due to the collapse of buildings and the subsidence of the ground, many roads were either buried or interrupted, making it impossible to pass at all, and vehicles could only constantly change their routes and move forward little by little.
Fortunately, whether it is Bai Chen, Feilin, or the "rootless people" leading the way in front, they are all quite familiar with this place and will not get lost.
"I really have to thank those relic hunters for taking away all the cars blocking the road, otherwise, I would have to go around the ruins of this city, which would be too much of a waste of time." During this process, Jiang Baimian sighed sincerely.
"This is also our credit." Feilin smiled and touched the gray beard on his mouth, "Many cars in our business group were obtained from here, and now they are all grandfathers."
During the chat, the convoy took more than an hour to slowly pass through the most severely damaged area of the city ruins, the road conditions gradually improved, and you could even see the half-empty road supported by gray and white pillars ahead.
After an unknown amount of time, the convoy arrived next to the "Zhuo River".
The flowing water here is rolling with a yellowish color, and it seems to be mixed with a lot of sediment.
Since it is winter, many places in the riverbed have been directly exposed to the air and are full of silt.
Diagonally ahead of the convoy, a medium-sized bridge supported by a pair of piers spanned both sides.
After waiting for this new bridge, he drove forward for about ten minutes, and a gray-white city wall more than ten meters high came into everyone's eyes.
"That's Wild Grass City." Feilin introduced.
"Is there a city wall?" Long Yuehong asked in surprise and curiosity.
He remembered that textbooks had written that cities in the old world were no longer like in ancient times, and they had to build tall and strong walls, at most schools and other places.
If it was done after the destruction of the old world, what a big project it would be!
Feilin smiled and said:
"This is an accessory to the ruins of the city just now.
"Before the destruction of the old world, it is said that what kind of ancient city."
"Tourist attractions? In order to restore the style of ancient times, the city wall was preserved and repaired?" Jiang Baimian speculated based on his own knowledge.
Feilin said "hmm":
"I heard that in the early days, when many survivors were preparing to establish settlements, they considered the previous ruins, but the damage there was too bad, and there was a city wall here, its own water plant, and it was close to the hydroelectric power station."
Speaking of this, he laughed and said:
"Although the city wall cannot prevent cannons or bombs, it can at least block beasts, monsters and 'heartless people', so that everyone can gain more security."
As they spoke, the convoy arrived at the gate of Wild Grass City.
It's a bit congested here, and the Jeep is moving very slowly.
Long Yuehong pressed the car window, looked out, and found that there were a bunch of people crowded at the city gate.
They were wearing tattered or old clothes, their faces were pale in the cold winter wind, and their lips were already a little blue.
Most of these people are young and middle-aged men and women, followed by children, and none of them are elderly.
Their expressions were more or less numb, and they moved mechanically along the line.
"This is?" Long Yuehong looked back at Feilin.
Feilin half-propped up and tried to glance at the city gate.
He quickly sat down again, sighed and said:
"These are all wilderness wanderers who don't have much food for the winter, come to Wild Grass City to try their luck."
"Can I find a job here?" Long Yuehong asked with the habits of a company employee.
Feiling smiled self-deprecatingly:
"The lucky ones are taken in or bought by the 'Hunter Guild' and cultivated as a direct lineage.
"Those with poor luck are favored by the nobles and become slaves.
"Those who are worse will be taken to the surrounding manors and become serfs.
"I was unlucky and was bought back by someone who was in the meat business.
"The worst luck is to be a miner......"
After listening to Felin's description, the inside of the jeep became extremely quiet, and no one spoke for a long time.
Long Yuehong watched the vehicle overtake those people little by little, but she didn't know what she could do.
He withdrew his gaze and glanced at Shang Jianyao, only to see his friend with a solemn face.
Finally, Jiang Baimian broke the silence and repeated a word mockingly:
"Noble ......"
"Isn't this learned from the 'First City'? After all, it is also a part of the 'original city'." Feilin didn't care much about this.
Long Yuehong gathered her mood and continued to ask:
"Why do they still queue up at the door?"
He remembered Bai Chen mentioning that Weeds City was quite open and had no entrance tax.
"With so many homeless people, who knows if they carry any infectious diseases? At this time, you must do a basic examination, otherwise everyone will be doomed together." Felling is quite familiar with similar processes.
"Hmm." Long Yuehong nodded and asked instead, "Hey, why are there no old people......"
Before he finished speaking, he suddenly woke up:
"I understand."
In such a cold season, there is a lack of food and clothing, and those who are a little older will definitely not be able to go to Weeds City, so it is better to commit suicide and concentrate resources on future generations.
This may even include their bodies.
This kind of understanding made Long Yuehong feel uncomfortable for a while.
Feilin immediately patted Long Yuehong on the shoulder:
"Hey, get used to it, this is gray soil.
"When the first snow falls, it will be even worse."
Speaking of this, he glanced at the north:
"I heard it's snowing over there in the Kuronuma Wilderness......"
Bai Chen, who was driving in the "Snow Disaster ......", didn't know what he remembered.
Jiang Baimian immediately comforted her:
"Fortunately, Shuiwei Town doesn't have to worry about these problems."
After moving slowly for a while, the convoy finally passed the inspection and entered the Weed City.
Long Yuehong subconsciously looked outside and found that the road was paved with cyan or gray stone bricks, which looked very regular, but they were all a bit narrow and could only barely pass two cars.
The buildings on the side of the road are not too high, only five stories at most, and the top is shaped like cornices and bucket arches.
On the ground floor, there are rows of rooms facing the street, which is very similar to the ruins of the city deep in the swamp.
Similarly, they all have their own signs.
Long Yuehong glanced at it and saw names such as "Time-honored Noodle Restaurant", "Ah Xiu Non-staple Food", "Zhang Ji Grain and Oil", "First City Office" and "Shooting Internet Cafe".
Even on the telephone poles on the side of the road, there are white papers with the words "Specializing in the treatment of intractable diseases".
In addition to these, Long Yuehong also saw many signboards written in Red River script.
This includes words like "restaurant," "club," and "bread."
It was only at this time that Long Yuehong deeply realized that "Weed City" was part of the "Original City" - nearly half of the pedestrians on the road were black-haired and brown-eyed, but only half. The rest have blonde hair, brown hair, blue eyes, and green eyes.
Of course, because it was winter and the cold wind was biting, there were not too many passers-by outside.
"It looks lively." Long Yuehong sighed.
"That's not to mention, for the first two months, I couldn't drive the car." Feilin said with a smile, "The road here is not designed for vehicles, it is narrow and easy to crush."
"That's right......" Long Yuehong nodded, and looked out the window again, just like Shang Jianyao.
On the telephone poles, various lines were pulled to different places without any plan, looking very messy, as if dividing the sky.
As the vehicle moved forward, Long Yuehong saw another signboard:
"South Street Slave Market"
Long Yuehong fell silent for a moment.
(End of this chapter)