After listening to Shang Jianyao's description, Jiang Baimian nodded without saying anything.
Bai Chen and Long Yuehong also suddenly felt a bit heavy, unsure how to respond.
"Which floor? Those two elevators should work." After a few seconds, Jiang Baimian glanced at the blue and white LCD screen.
At this time, the numbers representing the other two elevators were displaying normally.
"Sixth floor, right? We thoroughly searched that room before. It should be the safest place." Bai Chen offered his opinion.
"Alright." Jiang Baimian nodded lightly, smiling. "Besides, even if Qiao Chu returns, he definitely won't expect us to still be there. We can catch him off guard."
As she spoke, she took a few steps forward and pressed the button with the hand holding "Ice Moss."
Soon, the silver-black doors of an elevator opened, releasing a slightly musty smell.
Jiang Baimian carefully checked it and took the lead entering:
"No problem."
Once Shang Jianyao and the others were inside, the elevator doors slowly closed, rising smoothly.
When they left, they didn't close the door to Room 605, only leaving it ajar.
Now, a whitish light shone out, making the metal door seam quite bright.
As Shang Jianyao pulled open the door, Jiang Baimian suddenly held out a hand, stopping him.
"There's someone inside." Jiang Baimian said in a low voice.
"How many?" Shang Jianyao asked as if asking how many guests there were.
Long Yuehong reactively raised his gun, ready to fire.
Jiang Baimian slowly took a breath, glanced at Shang Jianyao:
"One."
"Qiao Chu definitely isn't as fast as us... the powerful ones should all be heading to the 'City Intelligent Network Control Center'... those without strength wouldn't act alone..." Bai Chen analyzed quickly. "Either it's a relic hunter whose companions all died and is looking for a place to hide alone, but that would be too much of a coincidence. This city ruin is so big, with so many houses, how could they happen to choose the room we were in before? Or it's the original owner of this house, a 'Heartless,' who, after the lights came on, followed their instinct and returned."
"Yes, my reason tells me that the former's probability is slightly equal to zero, but haven't we also encountered so many things along the way, eventually arriving here? People, ah, absolutely can't be stubborn, and would rather be a little more cautious." Jiang Baimian originally wanted to say, "Maybe our luck hasn't been very good recently," but she was afraid of stimulating Long Yuehong, so she forcibly changed her words.
Just as she was about to issue an order to change hiding rooms, Shang Jianyao suddenly said:
"I want to go inside and take a look."
"Hmm..." Jiang Baimian pondered for a moment. "Let's see, I'm also very curious what the original owner of this room was like. Be careful."
Shang Jianyao nodded, holding his assault rifle, and carefully entered Room 605.
Compared to when they left, there was almost no change, except that the white tiles and brown floor reflected the light, bringing out an unspeakable warmth.
After entering a certain range, without Jiang Baimian reminding him again, Shang Jianyao could already sense where that person was.
"He" was at the end of the corridor, in the small bedroom on the right.
Shang Jianyao approached step by step and soon saw that the bedroom door was open, with orange light flowing out.
And on the narrow bed inside, on the blue bed sheet with many golden stars, leaned a person.
She should be a woman, her body slightly hunched, her face gaunt and full of wrinkles, like dried orange peel, her hair long and messy, all white.
Looking at this woman, Shang Jianyao instantly understood where the white hair he had found on the pillow in this bedroom came from.
At the same time, he recognized her, this was a "Heartless" he had seen while on night watch.
This "Heartless" had pulled up the messy, curled-up quilt that matched the bed sheet, covering half of her body.
At this moment, she stretched out her hands, holding something, and was watching it intently.
Her sleeves were pink, a little faded, and didn't seem to fit her well.
Noticing Shang Jianyao's approach, the "Heartless" looked up at him, then lowered her head again, looking at the booklet in her hands.
Shang Jianyao stared for a while, holding his assault rifle, and walked gently towards her.
Jiang Baimian behind him wanted to remind him, but saw Shang Jianyao squat down, squatting by the bed, and with the "Heartless," looking at the thing in her hands.
After considering for a second, Jiang Baimian followed, leaning over Shang Jianyao's head, and looked at the booklet.
With her experience and knowledge, she recognized it as a photo album at a glance.
Each page of the photo album was made of transparent plastic, with many colorful photos sandwiched inside.
The first thing Jiang Baimian saw was a little girl.
She was dressed in fluffy clothes, very cute, being held by a dignified and beautiful young woman with a smiling face, crying very sadly.
At this time, the "Heartless" flipped the photo album to the next page.
And this also allowed Jiang Baimian to see the back of the previous photo.
The white there was slightly yellow, and someone had written a sentence with a black pen:
"Nannan at one year old."
Jiang Baimian seemed to understand something, and followed the "Heartless"'s flipping, looking at other photos.
In those photos, the little girl gradually grew up, either riding on a man's shoulders, or being held by the men and women who repeatedly appeared in the photos, or wearing a green monster costume with a tail, or all in pink, making her skin look fair.
On the back of these photos, there were the same black pen strokes.
They wrote respectively:
"Nannan at two years old."
"Nannan at three years old."
"Nannan at four years old."
When the photo album was finished, the handwriting stopped at "Nannan at seven years old."
Jiang Baimian silently finished watching these photos, raised her head, and once again sized up the "Heartless" lying on the bed.
Her body was slightly hunched, her face gaunt and full of wrinkles, like dried orange peel, her hair long and messy, all white.
Jiang Baimian closed her eyes and leaned close to Shang Jianyao's ear:
"Let's not disturb her."
Shang Jianyao nodded, slowly stood up, and retreated to the living room area.
Jiang Baimian wiped her eyes and pointed outside:
"Let's change places."
Bai Chen and Long Yuehong had no objections to this.
Before long, they found a temporary hiding place again on the eighth floor.
The layout here was completely identical to Room 605.
"Only the restaurant window can see the jeep and armored vehicle. Bai Chen, you monitor there." After checking Room 805, Jiang Baimian looked around and began to issue tasks. "Long Yuehong, you stay at the French window and observe the movements on the street outside. Shang Jianyao and I will rest for a while, and rotate with you in an hour."
"Yes, team leader!" Bai Chen and Long Yuehong each took their weapons and went to the best vantage points.
Shang Jianyao did not rest, found a place with an outlet to sit down, and took out the palm-sized speaker and various small instruments, tools, components, and wires from his tactical backpack.
"Don't need to rush to fix it, right?" Jiang Baimian saw his intention.
Shang Jianyao, while taking advantage of the light of the fluorescent lamp to test those tools one by one, replied:
"This is very important."
"Why?" Jiang Baimian was slightly stunned.
"Don't you think that having musical accompaniment at a crucial moment will allow you to perform better?" Shang Jianyao said without looking up. "This speaker seems to have its own storage chip. There must be music from the Old World inside."
"...Don't think so." Jiang Baimian gave up trying to persuade him.
Anyway, she didn't think she could really rest here, because the existence of "Advanced Heartless" and mutated creatures made her uneasy about Long Yuehong, the newbie.
She said she was going to rest, but she was actually just closing her eyes to rest, and would still be distracted by sensing the surroundings.
Since that was the case, let Shang Jianyao do whatever he wanted.
With the physique of a gene-modified person, not sleeping for one or two nights would still leave him full of energy.
While Shang Jianyao was focused on repairing the speaker, Long Yuehong guarded the outside, looking into the distance.
Although this was only the eighth floor, he could still see the lights of the entire city spreading out like stars, piece by piece.
--Although he hadn't seen the starry night sky, he had at least seen photos and could make the corresponding associations.
After looking at it for who knows how long, he finally exclaimed:
"So beautiful..."
Besides beauty, he felt that this scene also contained a unique flavor, but he couldn't describe it.
After another while, Long Yuehong said sincerely:
"It's a pity it's too short here. If you could see it from a very high place, it would definitely be even more beautiful."
Hearing this sentence, Jiang Baimian stood up and walked to the French window.
She gazed for a long time, smiling. "Do you want to try going to the rooftop?
"While it's still very quiet and 'everyone' is very polite."
"Okay." Long Yuehong immediately responded.
"Do you guys want to go?" Jiang Baimian turned around and asked Shang Jianyao and Bai Chen.
"We can." Bai Chen knew that this was a stage where they could relax slightly.
"I'm almost done." Shang Jianyao stood up, stuffed all the messy things back into his tactical backpack, and only held the small blue and black speaker in his hand. "I don't know if that long-lasting battery still works."
"Let's go, let's go, we'll try it again when we get back." Jiang Baimian urged.
They quickly took the elevator to the top floor, then climbed the stairs, opened the door, and entered the rooftop.
Before they even got close to the edge of the chest-high fence, they saw the scenery around the building:
Lights were densely distributed in all directions, emitting either yellowish or whitish light.
Some of them were located on the roadside, some came from inside different buildings, and some were erected at high places, like lighthouses in the boundless ocean, each illuminating an area, and like the glittering stars slowly flowing in the night sky.
And near these lights, either shadows flickered, or vehicles drove past, making them even more vivid.
"It's so magnificent..." Long Yuehong once again exclaimed sincerely.
Jiang Baimian, Shang Jianyao, and others did not speak, standing on the edge of the rooftop, watching the painting in a daze.
They exhausted everything they had learned, but couldn't find suitable words to describe it.
After who knows how long, Shang Jianyao suddenly took two steps back and squatted down.
"You have to have a song to go with this kind of time..." He put down the speaker and continued to fiddle with it, starting to debug.
Just at this time, from the direction of the "City Intelligent Network Control Center," another earth-shattering, desolate roar rang out.
While this huge roar was still echoing, Jiang Baimian saw bright flames erupting from the corresponding location.
"Boom!"
A deafening explosion followed, drowning out all the noise.
Gray-white air currents quickly gathered, rising upward, like a giant mushroom.
This made the building where Jiang Baimian and the others were couldn't help but tremble.
Shang Jianyao subconsciously stood up, walked to his companions, and looked at that place.
As the rolling, rising flames and air currents expanded, the lights in that area flickered a few times and went out one after another.
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This included the building where the "City Intelligent Network Control Center" was located.
Immediately afterwards, throughout the entire city, whether it was the street lights on the side of the road or the lit building glass, one area after another went out.
In just a few seconds, the city became extremely dark. Only the faint moonlight and starlight made the row upon row of buildings loom, like monsters hidden in the depths of a nightmare.
And those figures active behind the windows, those "Heartless" busy outside, those vehicles driving on the road, were also swallowed by the dense night, unable to be seen again.
The entire city ruins once again returned to dead silence.
Shang Jianyao and the others stared blankly for more than ten seconds, and their mood became inexplicably heavy.
They didn't know how to express such emotions, so they could only continue to stare.
After a while, they subconsciously lowered their heads and looked towards the bottom of the building.
In the faint light, a "Heartless" crawled out from a window.
Her hair was all white, draped messily.
She climbed and jumped down with some difficulty, and soon disappeared into the shadows of the building, like an old ape.
Long Yuehong seemed to be shocked and took two steps back as if he couldn't bear to look any longer.
*Pa*, he kicked the speaker that Shang Jianyao had placed on the ground.
The speaker immediately made a *zzz* sound.
The four members of the "Old Tune Group" instinctively turned their heads and looked over.
Almost simultaneously, a mournful and melodious female voice came from the speaker:
"Remembering the past...
"The painful lovesickness cannot be forgotten..."
On the empty rooftop, in the boundless darkness, in the dead city, this song wailed like a cry between the quietly standing Jiang Baimian, Shang Jianyao, Long Yuehong, and Bai Chen, winding upwards and echoing.
Note 1: Quoted from Tarcy Su, "New Endless Love."
ps: Seeking recommendation tickets~