Bosen opened a crumpled paper bag and found a small piece of oat bread and a thumb-sized piece of bacon covered in dust.
He was overjoyed, looked up at Jiang Baimian and Shang Jianyao, and seeing that they weren't paying attention to him, quickly wiped the bacon and stuffed it into his mouth.
Then, he ignored the complex and unpleasant smells around him and began to gnaw on that small piece of oat bread.
Perhaps afraid that the food would be snatched away, he ate ravenously and quickly choked himself.
However, he was an experienced scavenger and skillfully took out the tin-white kettle he had picked up earlier and took a few gulps.
At this moment, Jiang Baimian and Shang Jianyao were rummaging through piles of garbage for possible clues.
The garbage that was bagged and sorted was relatively pleasing to the eye, allowing them to check efficiently, while the garbage that was directly poured into the bins, of various types, was mixed together, creating a fermenting, sticky environment, some of which had already rotted, with a very touching smell.
Hearing Bosen drinking water, Jiang Baimian, wearing a gas mask, turned around and looked at the scavenger.
He was in his forties, with blue eyes, a face full of the marks of wind and frost, and a messy, light yellow mustache, covered with碎屑 and water droplets.
After completely swallowing the food that had choked him, the scavenger raised his left hand and wiped his mustache.
Jiang Baimian noticed that his hand had a slight, unconscious tremor.
After thinking for a while, Jiang Baimian took off a rubber glove from one hand and took out a photo from her pocket:
"Do you recognize this kind of cigarette?"
It was the photo of the Banner cigarette taken by Genaewa.
Bosen拧好 the kettle lid and pointed to himself with his left finger:
"You, are you asking me?"
"Yes." Jiang Baimian gave an affirmative answer.
Just as she was about to say that she could pay a little reward, Bosen had already looked at the photo seriously and said:
"This is a Banner cigarette. Its filter is short and useless. Smoking it has almost no taste."
Compared with other cigarettes on the market in First City, Banner cigarettes were famous for their strong taste, close to土烟, and a very short filter that did not play much of a role.
"Have you smoked it?" Shang Jianyao asked curiously.
Perhaps because these two hadn't snatched the food he had found and were the type that could get along peacefully, Bosen was no longer as wary as before and said with a smile:
"I can occasionally find some cigarette butts in the garbage room, of all brands. As long as they haven't been wetted, I'll pick them up, find fire to light them, and take a few puffs to feel the taste.
"If I can also find some food that day to fill my stomach, that would be even better."
Bosen had already discovered that the purpose of these two people in front of him seemed to be different from his own, and the two sides did not seem to have a competitive relationship.
Hearing that he picked up cigarette butts to smoke, Jiang Baimian's eyes lit up, and she patiently asked:
"Do you know the brands of various cigarettes?"
"I used to smoke some, and there are often discarded old newspapers in the garbage room, with advertisements for various cigarettes on them." Bosen said with a bit of pride, "I know words!"
Jiang Baimian immediately asked:
"Then where did you pick up the Banner cigarette butts?"
Bosen recalled:
"That time I went to the Qing Olive District to sell various things I had picked up. When I passed the port, I picked them up on the road. I was quite looking forward to it, but..."
As a result, the customers of Banner cigarettes would take a few puffs of the cigarette butts themselves before discarding them. In addition, the short filter design, which did not have much filtration effect and could not block certain ingredients, meant that there was almost no residual taste.
Jiang Baimian was a little disappointed and asked in confirmation:
"You didn't pick up this kind of cigarette butt in these blocks?"
"No." Bosen shook his head affirmatively.
Jiang Baimian thought for a moment:
"Then which buildings have you been to in the past week?"
She was going to use the process of elimination.
Bosen thought carefully:
"Gade Building, Hearst Apartment..."
As he spoke, he pointed with his right finger.
Jiang Baimian noticed that there was also a problem with his right hand, and it was not so agile.
After noting down the names of the buildings Bosen reported, Jiang Baimian stood up, walked out of the garbage room, and took out the walkie-talkie in a secluded place nearby.
"Gade Building, Hearst Apartment... put them in second place, prioritize the other buildings on the list." She issued orders to Bai Chen, Long Yuehong, and Genaewa.
After receiving an affirmative reply, she put away the walkie-talkie and returned to the garbage room she had just been in.
At this time, Shang Jianyao was already talking happily with Bosen.
"Are you looking for something? Don't worry, the garbage truck won't be here for several hours." Bosen comforted his newly acquainted friend.
"Yeah." Jiang Baimian nodded, squatted down again, and put on the rubber glove.
Bosen grinned as he rummaged through the garbage, looking for food and valuable items:
"You can often find interesting things here.
"Before, in the winter, I found a bag of clothes in an opaque bag. Guess what was in it?"
Shang Jianyao replied in cooperation:
"Overcoats,棉袄?"
"No, no, no." Bosen shook his head.
He said with a smile:
"There was a pair of dark blue socks, a pair of black leather boots, a pair of silk underwear, a pair of black trousers, a white shirt, a black vest, and a black suit, the kind that noble gentlemen like to wear the most, and they were all very new, without any signs of mending."
"This sounds a bit strange." Jiang Baimian's thoughts turned, and she roughly understood what was going on.
A certain nobleman learned the style of the forensic playboy Weller from Redstone Town, comforting someone else's wife, but the other person came home early and blocked him in the house.
He couldn't bother to put on his clothes, climbed out of the window, and fled in the state of "The Emperor's New Clothes."
Afterwards, he either met his attendants who were waiting nearby, or found a治安官 under the guise of being robbed, or stole someone else's clothes that were being dried.
The wife was afraid that the clothes and shoes he left behind would be discovered by her husband, so she hurriedly put them in a bag and took them downstairs under the guise of taking out the garbage, throwing them into the garbage room.
Bosen was about to respond when he found a half-rotten apple.
His eyes lit up, and he put it in the linen pocket he had brought.
After finishing this matter, Bosen smiled and said:
"Yes, I can imagine a love story.
"Unfortunately, I didn't dare sell that suit in the Golden Apple District and the Red Giant Wolf District, so I could only send it to the Qing Olive District, but it still exchanged for a full 5 Ore.
"That month was really wonderful..."
Shang Jianyao listened with relish and expressed his opinion:
"That suit is worth at least 50 Ore."
"50? At least 200!" Bosen retorted.
Jiang Baimian glanced at him and nodded slightly:
"You seem to have received some education?"
"I am a citizen." Bosen emphasized, "I used to be in the army."
"Then how did you become a, scavenger?" Jiang Baimian asked curiously.
Bosen was silent for a moment and said:
"I used to be the best shot in our battalion and made a lot of contributions. Later, in a war, my right forearm was injured, and my movements were not so flexible, so I left the army.
"At that time, I was allocated a lot of farmland, in the southern suburbs. I had a good life for several years until the weather changed drastically that year, grain production dropped sharply, and the Senate refused to help us...
"Later, I couldn't afford the debts, so I had to sell the land to a noble gentleman and enter the city myself..."
Jiang Baimian deliberately asked:
"Then why don't you become a relic hunter and make a living in the Northern Wastelands?
"At your age, there should still be some fuel in your tank."
Bosen showed a bitter smile:
"The day I found out that the debt interest was too high to bear, my left hand started to tremble from time to time.
"I can't use a gun with either hand anymore..."
After a brief silence in the garbage room, Shang Jianyao asked seriously:
"Then do you hate the Senate for not helping you?
"Do you hate those nobles for taking the opportunity to provide high-interest loans and annex your land?"
Bosen's expression changed a few times, and he lowered his head slightly, looking at the ground and said:
"Hate, how could I not hate?
"Hoom, Jasper, Paris... one after another died to get back those lands, but in the end, they fell into the hands of nobles who didn't risk anything in the war."
Suddenly, he raised his head and roared in a slightly painful tone:
"We citizens, batch after batch, die to create the current 'First City', but they only want to deprive us of our land and send us to those factories!
"Most of the slaves in those factories don't even live for three years!"
Jiang Baimian listened quietly and exchanged glances with Shang Jianyao.
For the first time, she felt the internal contradictions of "First City" so clearly.
…………
Alpha Building, attached garbage room.
Bai Chen and Long Yuehong were also wearing gas masks, rummaging through the garbage with Genaewa.
A large number of companies and chambers of commerce are stationed here, and there are also apartments provided to employees. It was not originally on their checklist today, but the situation Jiang Baimian reported earlier made them abandon Gade Building and Hearst Apartment.
"This is really a test of patience." Long Yuehong almost used finding a needle in a haystack as an analogy.
Bai Chen glanced at him sideways and said:
"It is in this kind of place where it is almost impossible to find clues that 'Father' might be careless.
"Hurry up, we have to finish searching here before the garbage truck comes."
While she was talking, her hands didn't stop at all.
--As unofficial personnel, they must avoid crowded times when rummaging through the garbage to avoid alerting the snake. At the same time, they must rush to find these garbage before the garbage truck transports them away, otherwise, after the garbage is mixed together, who knows where it comes from.
"Okay." Long Yuehong endured a little nausea and continued his work.
In this regard, Genaewa did not have any discomfort at all.
As time passed quickly, Long Yuehong picked up a thin plastic bag and poured the garbage inside onto the ground.
As his eyes swept over, his gaze suddenly froze.
There were several cigarette butts with short filters in that pile of garbage.
These are Banner cigarette butts!
Long Yuehong subconsciously looked up, looked out of the garbage room, and looked at the Alpha Building, which was a full twenty-seven stories high.
ps: Asking for guaranteed monthly tickets at the beginning of the month~ I probably won’t have the energy to write monthly summaries in recent months. Please understand, laugh