The cold wind is biting and the cassocks are fluttering.
The old monk walked in front holding a Zen staff, and the young monk followed behind shivering.
This little thing obviously wore the most clothes, but he was the coldest. The old monk's Zen staff was equipped with an LED30 lamp with excellent lighting effect, which was enough to dispel the darkness within a few dozen meters.
He walked and chanted sutras all the way, and the little monk behind him also missed it, but when he opened his mouth, it felt like he had swallowed a big mouthful of ice shards. His tongue was frozen solid at that time, and all that was left was "嘘嘚嘚嘚嘘"
"My teeth chattered.
Coming down from the elevated road full of abandoned vehicles, the old monk stopped and said to his disciple, "Mi Tuoer, the city of Xuzhou is ahead. When you get there, master will find you a warm place and cook you a bowl of hot noodle soup."
, do you like it?"
The little monk perked up when he heard this, but he didn't dare to answer "yes". After all, the world is really dark and cold now. How could he dare to answer and risk his tongue being frozen off?
The old monk looked back at him and smiled slightly, his two long snow-white eyebrows hanging down to his chin fluttering in the wind.
"Let's go, it's too late, and I'll get scolded by that old bull again."
The little monk responded with a dull "Yes" and continued to follow the master.
Hundreds of miles away, the snowmobile on which Yougege and Momozawa Hanako were riding was also on its way to Xuzhou. However, Yougege's destination was not her hometown of Xuzhou, but the far north, which was much farther than Xuzhou.
land.
The previous story gave Momozawa Hanako so much shock and thought that she could not digest it for a long time.
Fortunately, this snack foodie didn't have too deep thoughts. Once Yougege cooked a pot of instant noodles, all worries were gone. But the almost Zen-like thinking still penetrated deep into her heart inadvertently.
After eating a full meal, Momosawa Hanako sighed, "Why didn't I think this food was so delicious before?"
Yougege smiled and said, "Have you heard the story about the emperor climbing up to eat a piece of cake?"
Momosawa Hanako shook her head, "No, what are you talking about?"
Yougege said, "Say, there used to be an emperor who liked to indulge in mountains and rivers, and whenever he encountered famous mountains and rivers, he would always go hiking by himself... On this day, the emperor came to a very high mountain. He felt that standing on the top of this mountain
Climbing up high and looking far away must be spectacular, so he ignored the obstruction and insisted on climbing the mountain near lunch time. As you can imagine, the emperor was starving only halfway up the mountain, even though he was accompanied by his attendants who brought many delicious foods.
, but he happened to be interested in the lunch of a farmer's family living halfway up the mountain. He also said that he wanted to understand the sentiments of the people. In fact, he was tired of the rich food and clothing and wanted to change his taste."
Momosawa Hanako smiled knowingly when she heard the teasing in Yu Gege's words.
Yougege continued, "This farmer family has lived here for generations. They mainly care for an ancient temple in the mountains. They live on the incense money in the temple. They are barely half-Buddhists... There are two elders and one younger boy in the farmer's family.
He went out to chop firewood, but the old man did not come back from the temple. Only an old woman was left cooking rice and baking pancakes. The eunuch accompanying him wanted the emperor not to go in when he saw how shabby it was, but the emperor was the one who persuaded him.
He had a character that wanted to confront anyone, so even a plate of pickles or a piece of freshly baked pancake was a top-quality delicacy for the emperor... and when he sat down, he ate the single pancake.
He praised it full of praise and said it was a delicacy in the world, and ordered his subordinates to reward the old woman with a lot of gold and silver."
"Then this family is quite lucky. In ancient times, if they were rewarded by the emperor, they would not be able to live in glory for a lifetime?" Momosawa Hanako joked.
"Yes, but the emperor's next request is a bit embarrassing..." Yougege smiled meaningfully.
Momosawa Hanako was stunned for a moment and then said, "Hey, are you going to say that the emperor has fallen in love with this old woman? This is too bloody!"
Yougege smiled and said, "That's true, but he didn't fall in love with the old woman, but fell in love with her craftsmanship. He insisted on inviting this old woman to go to the palace to bake pancakes for him."
After hearing this, Momosawa Hanako curled her lips, "He is an emperor after all. He wants everything he sees."
Yougege nodded, "Yes, and how dare she, an old man, disobey the Holy Will?"
"What happened next? Did the old man really follow him into the palace?"
Yougege shook his head, "No."
Momosawa Hanako was surprised and said, "Then why did she refuse? Could it be that she would rather die than obey and be killed? According to the plot of my story, this story is not only heavy, but also too dark."
You Gege rolled her eyes at Momozawa Hanako and said, "How could it be possible? Although this old woman did not dare to disobey the Holy Will, she was very smart. She said that these pancakes are indeed extraordinary. They need to use spring water from the mountains and flour from the ancient temple.
The weeds at the back were used to make fire, and they had to be eaten in the mountains and forests to have such a good taste. Therefore, although she did not dare to disobey the holy will, she was also afraid that she would not be able to make cakes that satisfied the emperor after returning with him, so... she begged the emperor to let him
She continued to bake pancakes here, and when the emperor wanted to eat some, he would hike up the mountain and naturally eat good pancakes."
Momosawa Hanako was surprised when she heard this and said, "Is there really so much detail?"
Yougege pursed his lips and smiled, "You, sometimes I really don't know if you are smart or cute. Of course, this is just the old woman's nonsense."
"Then this cake..."
"The truth is actually very simple. It's just that when you're hungry, whatever you eat is delicious. But most people don't understand this simplest truth, especially the emperor... Even if half of the people in the world starve to death, as a true dragon and emperor, he can still
You have no worries about food and clothing, and have three delicious meals, but excessive material enjoyment does not mean the ultimate happiness. Some of the best delicacies require you to hike up the mountain to taste them." After Yougege finished telling her story, she knocked on the empty soup noodles.
Guodao: "Now do you understand why you suddenly think this simple instant noodles will be delicious?"
However, Momosawa Hanako immediately closed her eyes and pretended to be asleep and said, "Oh, oh, oh, I suddenly feel a little uncomfortable in my stomach. I'll leave the cooking to you..."
Yougege was stunned when he heard this and said, "Hey!"
However, Momosawa Hanako has already fallen asleep. Obviously, between smart and cute, Momosawa Hanako belongs to the category of smart and cute.
After spending a long time talking, you finally had to clean the pot and wash the dishes. Yougege was really angry, but after thinking about it, he found it very interesting, so he didn't think it was any trouble.
However, when she returned to the cockpit after washing the coins, she found that the speed of the snowmobile had slowed down.
After checking the body structure, Yougege determined that there was nothing abnormal about the snowmobile. It was just that it detected a large number of obstacles ahead, so it slowed down in advance.
The red light spots that appeared on the screen were densely packed on the road ahead.
Although they were all stationary, it still made Yugege a little worried. She woke up Hanako Momosawa, and then said, "Put on your cold-proof clothes and prepare your weapons. Maybe there will be trouble."
Sleeping after eating is a magic weapon for Momosawa Hanako's health, but most people will become obese if they do this, but Momosawa Hanako is different. She has the kind of ant physique that does not make her fat no matter how much she eats. After she wakes up a little, Momosawa Hanako immediately
Go to the rear cabin and arm yourself.
After finishing dressing, she returned to the cockpit and asked, "What on earth is it? Did it break into the woods?"
Yougege doesn’t know either.
The detection system of the snowmobile is a relatively simple dot matrix feedback radar system. Although it can detect and warn early, it cannot generate detection images.
The current speed has dropped to twenty kilometers per hour, which is almost equivalent to moving at a snail's pace.
Densely packed abandoned vehicles can be seen from a distance on the superhighway coming out of Xuzhou. Most of these vehicles are left behind by people who were unable to obtain the qualifications to enter the evacuation centers in the area and fled to other areas in search of hope. However, these vehicles
Not long after people left the city, they were stopped by the military, so most people had no choice but to abandon their cars and jump off the superhighway to survive on foot. The Chaoyang Type 3 snowmobile, manufactured by Xingyi Heavy Industry, was over seven meters tall.
The body slowly rises, and with the help of the sub-morphic fusion core loaded in the car, this snowmobile can continue to travel for 950,000 kilometers.
The pressure turbine glowed blue, and the four-ton snowmobile drove slowly over the densely crowded abandoned vehicles. Yugege released two armed drones mounted on the snowmobile, which would fly around the snowmobile.
To provide warning for the people in the car. Momosawa Hanako held the sniper rifle and rubbed the dagger Liu Ping left for her in her hand, staring at the distant city outline with a pair of autumn eyes.
At this time, the temperature outside the car has dropped to minus 152 degrees Celsius. In this ultra-low temperature environment, it is difficult for normal people to survive for more than five hours even if they wear cold-proof clothing. Therefore, Momosawa Hanako is not worried about ambushes from people.
What's more, both sides of the speed channel are suspended in the air, so this is obviously not a suitable ambush location.
As for the city in the distance, Momosawa Hanako has already seen the route. They will only pass through it and will not pass through the city.
But when a distant "Buddha's name" came, the curiosity of Momozawa Hanako and Yugege was suddenly attracted. Yugege stopped the snowmobile, and she turned on the vehicle's night vision telescope and looked at "
Looking in the direction where the "Buddha's Horn" sounded, fluorescent lights flickered in the darkness, and it seemed that a large army was advancing on foot.
I checked the route map and found that there were less than 700 meters left from the dense red dots in front. If I walked further, I could see the true appearance of those things in Lushan. Yougege hesitated and asked Momosawa Hanako, "What do you want?"
Would you like to go over and take a look?”
Momosawa Hanako asked, "Do you want to go see it?"
Yougege smiled slightly and said, "Let's go."
After saying that, she turned the front of the car and activated the assisted flight mode of the snowmobile.
This fat, white, cute steel beast instantly transformed into an aircraft and flew down from the super-high-speed channel twenty meters above the ground. Although the snowmobile can only fly at a short low altitude, it is enough for it to fly in the complicated terrain.
The ground is flat. After landing, Yougege recovered the two drones that had only half the energy left, and marked a tracking beacon at the landing position. This kind of beacon is currently the only one that can provide positioning assistance on a global scale.
The beacon system and normal navigation have long since failed. Even the route map planned by Yougege is all supported by the powerful physical algorithm core of the snowmobile.
After landing, the field of vision broadened a lot, but as far as the eye could see it was desolate.
The terrain scan showed that there were many potholes in this area, which felt like a battlefield. Momosawa Hanako was very excited and asked, "What do you think those lights are? Could they be people?"
Yougege calmly replied, "The possibility of it being a human being is very low."
Momosawa Hanako suddenly felt disappointed, but she still asked, "Why?"
"Judging from the observation results just now, we are at least several kilometers away from those light spots, and their depth within the observation field of view has almost reached the limit of the observation field of view. Therefore, based on the above, we can roughly estimate this team
It is at least two thousand meters long... Such a long team is estimated to be tens of thousands of people, and judging from the current temperature, so many people traveling on foot will undoubtedly be seeking death... Therefore, those lights should not be human
.”
After hearing this analysis, Momosawa Hanako frowned and said, "Then what are those lights? They are not humans...could they be ghosts?"
"What are you thinking about? This is a scientific society. How can there be so many superstitious ideas?" You Gege smiled.
Momosawa Hanako curled her lips, "It's true that we are a scientific society, but since 'The Sun Disappeared', none of the things I have encountered can be fully explained by science. You have to make people think too much."
These words left Yougege speechless.
The two of them had already traveled a kilometer while talking.
Arriving at the outskirts of Xuzhou City, the blockade built more than a year ago was still swaying in the sea breeze, but none of the people behind the blockade who had been frantically rushing against the iron grid to escape the city could be seen. I think it was probably after the later policies were implemented.
We all know that the shelter has a large capacity, so we all went back.
This is a beautiful idea.
Yougege stopped at the blockade, then started the mechanical arm in front of the snowmobile to remove the blockade, and then continued to drive forward. In front of him were large tracts of farmland, which were originally managed by professional farmers, but now they are all
Already deserted.
But heavy machinery with a height of more than ten meters still stands on the ridge of the fields. Those heavy machinery products that were born more than a century ago were once called walking farming giants, but now they are forgotten in the darkness, eroded by the cold wind.
It turned into a huge steel statue.
When Yougege drove by, he said with emotion, "I have climbed to the top of something like this before, and the scenery was really beautiful."
"Isn't it just a low-intelligence auxiliary farming puppet? What good scenery can you see?" Momosawa Hanako has also seen the oldest such equipment in the museum, but in her opinion, this kind of thing consumes a lot of energy.
, the maintenance cost is high, and the movement is very slow. It really does not look like a creation that integrates cutting-edge technology.
Yougege said, "That's because you didn't board it during sowing and harvesting times. If it were these two seasons, you would see large tracts of green and the golden light in the autumn, the kind of light that emanates from the soil."
The smell of harvest is like the pancakes you eat when you are tired from climbing a mountain, it will be remembered for a lifetime."
After hearing this, Momosawa Hanako put away her contemptuous thoughts, but...
"Hey, it's all in the past tense... I don't know if the 'sun' will still rise one day... I don't know if I will still be alive when it rises..."
Yougege didn't respond to Momosawa Hanako's sigh.
She drove a snowmobile through the fields to the outer edge of the city, which is the outer edge energy-saving barrier after the completion of the new city. A petal-shaped special barrier that can absorb solar energy and wind energy to provide a steady supply of energy for urban infrastructure. It
The height is usually about 25 meters. Once it rises, it will isolate the city from the outside world like an ancient city wall.
The maximum flying height of the snowmobile is only about 25 meters. After thinking about it, Yougege finally decided not to take the risk.
She parked the car in a hidden corner on the outer edge, and then said to Momosawa Hanako, "I'm going to change clothes, and then we'll walk there."
"Ah? Hiking? How far is it?"
Yougege glanced at the data and said, "We can catch up to that fluorescent tail at most five hundred meters."
Momosawa Hanako nodded, she disconnected the charging interface of the cold-proof suit, then got up and followed Yu Gege to the trunk.
By the time Yugege's outfit change was completed, the snowmobile had entered a low-power thermal insulation state. This was to prevent low temperatures from outside from invading the engine and central data core inside the vehicle.
After both of them got their equipment, they got out of the back of the car.
Facing the 25-meter-high energy-saving barrier, Yougege turned on the rock-climbing auxiliary function of the cold-proof suit integrated with the mechanical exoskeleton, and climbed up like Spider-Man.
Seeing her skillful movements, Momosawa Hanako felt relieved, put the gun on her back, and climbed up behind Yougege.
The two were very fast and reached the top in a short time.
The energy-saving barrier is not really as thin as a petal. In fact, its top width is more than two meters, which is enough for Momosawa Hanako and Yugege to stand firmly. If you turn on the auxiliary vision module at a high place, you can clearly see the light.
They are traveling in swarms across the city.
The "Buddha's name" was heard again. After Momozawa Hanako and You Gege looked at each other, they both jumped down and followed the team.
…
Amitabha was just a young novice who had entered Buddhism for less than a year. His father sent him to the old monk and then left alone without explaining where he was going.
Mi Tuoer didn't want to ask. He knew that the fate between him and his parents was very shallow since he was a child. It was a great blessing that they were separated when he was seven years old.
However, although Amitabha's relationship with Buddhism is deep and he can already move forward in the cold and dark wind without being frozen to death, he is still a child after all, and he is still very afraid of hardship and the cold.
The old monk's promise of hot soup noodles didn't come true. What he ate today was a compressed biscuit that was as frozen as a stone.
His stomach was full of cold air, and Mi Tuoer felt that he might freeze to death before he could get out of the city.
He felt weak on the soles of his feet, and the scene in front of him was hazy and unclear. Fortunately, there were still those "Buddha's Names" echoing in his ears, which prevented him from fainting in the darkness.