Squid Who Loves Diving
Chapter 127: Wildgrass City
Perhaps due to the rush or the desire for authenticity, the newly painted jeep had many mismatched colors, though it was generally recognizable as military green camouflage.
This was very similar to most jeeps running on the Ashlands – once they were bumped or scraped, there was either no place to fix them, or they were just repaired haphazardly, without much concern for aesthetics.
Fei Lin didn't ride in his own caravan's vehicle because he felt that once they arrived at Wildgrass City, he would be separated from his good brother Shang Jianyao, and he needed to seize the time to chat a bit more.
This resulted in three large men being crammed into the back seat of the jeep, but luckily, the vehicle was spacious enough that it didn't significantly affect the riding experience.
After leaving the camp and circling to the other side, Long Yuehong finally saw the most important facility in this area:
The water plant.
It was surrounded by lush greenery, and the environment was quite pleasant, indicating that it was well "cared for."
After passing the water plant, a city ruin gradually unfolded before the eyes of all members of the "Old Task Force."
Almost all of the high-rise buildings here had collapsed, and "mud blocks" of gray-white or brownish-red were piled messily together with stubbornly protruding corroded steel bars, covered by withered yellow ivy leaves and various plants, only vaguely revealing parts of them.
It was like countless people being buried alive, finally stretching out their hands before dying, trying to grasp something.
Compared to the city ruins deep in the swamp, this place no longer resembled the original appearance of the old world at all.
Even relic hunters had given up on this place.
--The remaining items were either difficult to collect or worthless.
If he hadn't been to the depths of the swamp and seen a silhouette of the old world, Long Yuehong would have felt at most a little sigh when faced with such a scene, but now, his mood was extremely complex, both inexplicably heavy and filled with sadness.
"Sigh..." Jiang Baimian in the passenger seat sighed "softly."
Fei Lin, sitting between Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong, looked out the window and said:
"When my grandpa was still alive, he told me this was a tourist city.
"Otherwise, they wouldn't have driven all the way here in a recreational vehicle."
Shang Jianyao didn't respond to Fei Lin's words, but said abruptly:
"I want to play a song."
"That 'Remembering the Past' song?" Jiang Baimian asked, seemingly knowing what he was thinking.
Shang Jianyao nodded emphatically:
"Yes."
"Forget it, forget it, it'll affect the mood." Jiang Baimian waved her hand. "This road is already difficult to drive on, so let's not distract Bai Chen."
Within this completely abandoned city ruin, due to the collapse of buildings and the subsidence of the ground, many roads were either buried or interrupted, making them impassable. The vehicles could only constantly change their routes, advancing bit by bit.
Fortunately, whether it was Bai Chen, Fei Lin, or the "Rootless" leading the way, they were all quite familiar with this place, so they wouldn't get lost.
"We really have to thank those relic hunters for removing the cars blocking the road, otherwise, we would have had to bypass this city ruin, which would have wasted too much time." During this process, Jiang Baimian said with genuine emotion.
"We deserve some credit for that too." Fei Lin smiled, stroking the white beard around his mouth. "Many of the vehicles in our caravan were obtained from here, and now they're treated like grandfathers."
While chatting, the convoy spent more than an hour slowly passing through the most severely damaged area of the city ruins. The road conditions gradually improved, and ahead they could even see semi-aerial roads supported by gray-white pillars. These roads were unusually open, and the signs of damage were not too obvious, but there were many withered weeds.
After an unknown amount of time, the convoy arrived next to the "Muddy River."
The flowing water here rolled with a yellowish color, as if mixed with a lot of sediment.
Due to the winter season, many parts of the riverbed had been directly exposed to the air, filled with silt.
Diagonally in front of the convoy, a medium-sized bridge supported by pairs of piers spanned both sides of the river.
After crossing this new bridge and driving forward for another ten minutes, a gray-white city wall more than ten meters high came into view.
"That's Wildgrass City," Fei Lin introduced.
"There are city walls?" Long Yuehong asked with surprise and curiosity.
He remembered reading in textbooks that cities in the old world no longer built tall and solid city walls like in ancient times. At most, places like schools would build a low wall for ease of management.
If it was built after the destruction of the old world, that would be a huge project!
Fei Lin smiled and said:
"This side is an appendage of the city ruin we just passed through.
"Before the destruction of the old world, it was said to be an ancient city of some kind."
"A tourist attraction? To restore the style of ancient times, they preserved and repaired the city walls?" Jiang Baimian speculated, combining her knowledge.
Fei Lin "mm"ed:
"I heard that in the beginning, when many survivors were preparing to establish settlements, they considered the previous ruins, but the damage there was too severe, while this place had city walls, its own water plant, and was close to the hydroelectric power station."
Speaking of this, he chuckled:
"Although city walls can't defend against cannons or bombs, they can at least block beasts, monsters, and 'Heartless,' giving everyone more security."
As they spoke, the convoy arrived at the city gate of Wildgrass City.
It was a bit congested here, and the jeep's speed slowed down considerably.
Long Yuehong lowered the car window and leaned out to look, discovering a crowd of people squeezed at the city gate.
They wore either ragged or worn-out clothes, and their faces were pale in the winter wind, their lips already turning a bit blue.
These people were mostly middle-aged and young men and women, followed by children. There wasn't a single elderly person.
Their expressions were more or less numb, mechanically moving forward in the line.
"This is?" Long Yuehong turned to look at Fei Lin.
Fei Lin half-propped himself up, trying to get a look at the city gate.
He quickly sat back down and sighed:
"These are all wanderers from the wilderness who don't have enough food to survive the winter, coming to Wildgrass City to try their luck."
"Can they find work here?" Long Yuehong asked, with the habits of a company employee.
Fei Lin smiled self-deprecatingly:
"The luckiest ones are taken in or bought by the 'Hunter's Guild' and cultivated as direct descendants.
"The next luckiest are spotted by the noble lords and become servants.
"The next worst are taken to the surrounding manors to work as serfs.
"Those with not-so-good luck are bought to work in the flesh trade.
"The unluckiest are miners..."
After hearing Fei Lin's description, the inside of the jeep became extremely quiet, and no one spoke for a long time.
Long Yuehong watched as the vehicles slowly passed the people, but he didn't know what he could do.
He withdrew his gaze and looked at Shang Jianyao, only to see his friend with a solemn expression.
Finally, Jiang Baimian broke the silence, repeating a word mockingly:
"Nobles..."
"Isn't that what they learned from 'First City'? They're part of 'First City' after all." Fei Lin didn't seem to care much about it.
Long Yuehong composed himself and continued to ask:
"Why are they still lining up at the gate?"
He remembered Bai Chen mentioning that Wildgrass City was quite open and didn't have an entry tax.
"With so many wanderers, who knows if they're carrying any infectious diseases? At this time, they definitely have to do a basic check, otherwise everyone will be finished together." Fei Lin was quite familiar with similar procedures.
"Mm." Long Yuehong nodded and then asked, "Eh, why aren't there any old people..."
Before he could finish his words, he suddenly realized:
"I understand."
In such a cold season, lacking food and clothing, older people, even if they had a little bit of age, would certainly be unable to reach Wildgrass City. It was better to end their own lives and concentrate resources on their descendants.
This might even include their bodies.
This realization made Long Yuehong feel a pang of discomfort.
Fei Lin then patted Long Yuehong on the shoulder:
"Hey, get used to it, this is the Ashlands.
"Things will get even worse when the first snow falls."
Speaking of this, he glanced at the north:
"I heard it's already snowing in the Blackmarsh Wilderness..."
"Snow disaster..." Bai Chen, who was driving, seemed to recall something.
Jiang Baimian then comforted her:
"Fortunately, Weishui Town doesn't have to worry about these problems."
After slowly moving for a while, the convoy finally passed the checkpoint and entered Wildgrass City.
Long Yuehong subconsciously looked outside, discovering that the road was paved with either blue or gray stone bricks, which seemed very orderly, but they were all a bit narrow, barely able to accommodate two vehicles.
The buildings on the side of the road were not too tall, at most five stories, and the tops were all in the style of flying eaves and brackets.
The ground floor consisted of rows of street-facing rooms, which was very similar to the city ruins deep in the swamp.
Similarly, they all had their own signs.
Long Yuehong saw "Old Brand Noodle Shop," "Axiu Convenience Store," "Zhang's Grain and Oil," "First City Office," and "Shooting Internet Cafe," among other names.
Even on the utility poles along the road, there were white sheets of paper posted with words like "Specializing in difficult and complicated diseases."
In addition to these, Long Yuehong also saw many signs written in Red River script.
This included words like "Restaurant," "Club," "Bread," and so on.
Only at this time did Long Yuehong deeply realize that "Wildgrass City" was part of "First City" - nearly half of the pedestrians on the road had black hair and brown eyes, but only half. The rest had blond hair, brown hair, blue eyes, or green eyes.
Of course, because it was winter, and the cold wind was biting, there weren't too many passersby outside.
"It looks very lively," Long Yuehong said with emotion.
"This isn't even the half of it. Before two months ago, vehicles couldn't even drive here." Fei Lin said with a smile. "The roads here weren't originally designed for vehicles, they're narrow and easily damaged."
"I see..." Long Yuehong nodded, and looked out the window again, just like Shang Jianyao.
On those utility poles, various lines were pulled haphazardly in different directions, appearing very messy, as if they were dividing the sky.
As the vehicle moved forward, Long Yuehong saw another sign:
"South Street Slave Market"
Long Yuehong fell silent.