【Summer Five】Iron City Wall

The fifth area is the largest area in the existing human territory, and it is divided into east and west halves by the outer city wall of the fourth area.Schools, hospitals, commercial streets and other places are gathered in the center of the area, while residential areas are scattered outside, surrounded by the outermost construction sites and city walls.

Five walls surrounding the human world——Since the beginning of the Golden Era, human beings who have returned to the surface have built five high walls in concentric circles from the inside out in order to avoid the invasion of wind, snow and phantom species.Twenty huge furnaces are distributed around the city walls, providing energy and heating for the interior, allowing humans to survive on the frozen ground.

The five areas are far apart and connected by viaducts and aboveground rivers.The value of human beings is divided by genes, and they live in different jurisdictions from high to low; without special approval, citizens in the low-value range are not allowed to enter high-level areas without authorization.

As for the fifth area—the outermost layer of the human world—it carries more than 30.00% of the population, and there are all kinds of heavy industrial ecology above and below ground.

In order to fill their stomachs, tens of thousands of young people step into the underground cavity every year, rushing between the dark factories and furnaces, becoming a cell in the body of this giant beast; Every month, I eagerly look forward to the poor money in the account, counting how much rice can be cooked in the pot with my fingers.

As a result, only a minority of parents send their children to school: most believe that spending half their salary on school fees will not change the status quo and will only make the family more embarrassing.

Xia You walked through the narrow and cramped streets, with wires criss-crossing overhead.Several families were drying quilts on the low walls, and the quilt covers were colorfully crowded in the sun, exuding a damp, sticky musty smell.

"Where is your school?" Wutiao followed behind, talking to him casually.

Xia You lowered his head to avoid a string of sausages hanging on a wooden pole, and said, "If you're in the city, you need to take a tram."

"You still have trams here?" Wutiao called out in disbelief: "Is it true?"

Xia You: "I'll find out later, just shut up and walk."

Five really did not speak.He walks very lightly, and his steps have a special rhythm, as if he can jump up at any time.

Xia You stopped in front of the potholed quagmire at the entrance of the alley, and wanted to ask Wutiao if he should take a detour.Before the words were spoken, Wu Tiao didn't even move his hands in his pockets, he jumped forward lightly and delicately, slid across the puddle like a big bird, and landed lightly on the other side.

"..." Xia You looked up at him, feeling that the sun was too bright.

They passed through a fence and finally left the long winding alley.The slender paths of the residential buildings converge into an unusually wide road here, with two railroad tracks laid in the center of the ground, and cables corresponding to them above the head.

The whistling of the engine was faintly heard in the distance, Xia You listened for a while, then suddenly grabbed Wu Tiao and ran towards the opposite side of the road.

"What are you doing?" Wutiao stumbled and ran along, his voice bumpy.Xia You didn't explain, and dragged him skillfully shuttled among various shops and eaves until a tall and thin stop sign appeared in his vision.

It is said to be a "stop sign", but that thing is more like a piece of dark cardboard attached to a clothes rail.On the paper was written "East [-]th Street" in big crooked characters, and a thin, dark-skinned old man stood underneath, holding a pole with one hand and counting the people in line in front of the sign with the other.

Only then did Wutiao see a group of people standing in front of the "stop sign", mostly children.Most of them were empty-handed, blinking and waiting in the queue, without the slightest appearance of going to school.

Xia You let go, slapped a coin into the old man's hand, and silently squeezed into the queue.Gojo followed behind him, looked around curiously, and asked in a low voice, "Is this the tram waiting for you?"

"Yes and no."

Wutiao raised his eyebrows and put on an air of listening attentively.Xia You thought for a while and said, "It's hard to explain clearly in a while, the tram is coming soon, just look at it."

As soon as the voice fell, the roar was getting closer and closer, and the vibration was transmitted to the feet of everyone along the electric track, and even the ground trembled for a moment.

The huge locomotive is slowly approaching, followed by four "naked" old-fashioned carriages - no seats, no handrails, and even the roof is missing.This "tram" just clinked like this, and the joints between the carriages made toothache friction sounds, no matter how you looked at it, it looked like it was about to disintegrate at any time.

Not only that, but the front of the car is clearly marked with the "Eastern Transport" logo, but the standard of the torso is far from it, as awkward as if it was forcibly transplanted from another car body; Under the wind and sun, it faded into a spotted yellow, and most of the rivets protruded, swaying slowly with the train running.

In the semi-open carriage—the most polite way of saying it—there were a dozen teenagers, standing or sitting, with no curiosity about this deformed vehicle in their expressions.Seeing that it was approaching the "platform", the tram didn't seem to slow down at all. It was still traveling at a speed of about [-] to [-] kilometers per hour, and it was about to pass by in the blink of an eye.

Wujo was still immersed in the shock of seeing the "Four Unlike Trams" for the first time, Xia You had already dragged him by the corner of his clothes and walked forward.The old man holding the stop sign yelled loudly, the rolling shutter door adjacent to the depot slowly rose, and an excavator drove towards the queue unstoppably.

"This is?" Wutiao couldn't keep up with the situation, and asked next to Xia You's ear, "So are we going to climb onto a moving tram with bare hands?"

Xia You sighed, then grabbed Wutiao's wrist and led him to stop in front of the excavator.The khaki-yellow dilapidated machine braked the car, and a young man covered in mud came out of the cab. When he saw Xia You and the two of them, he smiled and hurriedly said, "Come on, come on, sit tight and support yourself!"

He pushed a button, and the modified backbucket slowly extended and stopped in front of them.Xia You glanced at Wutiao, flipped it neatly into the shovel, and stretched out his hand to signal him to do the same.

Wujo looked at the dirty bucket, gritted his teeth, grabbed the hand, and followed him into it.Seeing that they were seated, the driver got into the cabin to start the engine, and drove towards the tram.

During the brief turbulence, Wujo saw more excavators coming out of the depot one by one, picking up the people in line two by two.The convoy drove on the main road in a mighty manner, and it took three to two minutes to catch up with the tram, and then began to slowly approach at the same speed.

"Get ready!" The driver yelled, and operated the bucket to lift to the left and fix it above the "open-top" carriage of the tram.Xia You quickly said "Follow me", then leaned out from the edge of the bucket, roughly visually measured the distance to the bottom of the carriage, and then turned over and jumped off at a certain moment.

With a sound of "dong", he landed firmly in the carriage, turned around and gave Wutiao a thumbs up, with a smile in his eyes.

Wutiao jumped down without hesitation, and the white shirt was blown up by the wind, like a bird fluttering its wings.He also landed lightly, patted the mud on his trouser legs, and stood still in the corner of the carriage.

"It really is a tram." He narrowed his eyes and smiled, "Full score for creativity!"

It was clearly repeated countless times, but Xia You struggled in his heart and jumped up: "This line will always go around from East Tenth Street to Central Road. The drive has been broken since the death of the previous driver, except for the starting point and the ending point. Can't stop. Dad said that carrying people in an excavator is a new kind of occupation, which can make some pocket money for those who retire from the factory, so no one cares about it, and it has been maintained for several years."

He was trying to show off his cleverness, but Wu Tiao didn't appreciate it.He leaned towards Xia You with his clear eyes, and said in a rising voice: "But your clothes are dirty and the soles of your feet are a little sore. From this point of view, this kind of business is neither hygienic nor safe. Sooner or later it won’t work.”

Xia You shot back: "I told you that you are not a local, right? That's right, if you put these things in the third district, they will be strictly prohibited within a week, but this is the fifth district, understand?"

He clicked to stop, and looked at Wutiao who was obviously choked and felt physically and mentally comfortable.

Although I don't know where he came from, it is really good to experience the hardships of people's livelihood.

Looking at the passing street scene outside the car, Xia You secretly rejoiced at his short-term advantage.

After arriving at the finish line, Gojo followed Xia You through a school gate that says "it's official if it has a name", and formally entered the largest school in the five districts - covering [-] grades from elementary school to high school, "District Middle School" It has two five-story teaching buildings, a dome cafeteria, half a playground, and a fish pond facing the toilet.

The classroom for the first grade of junior high school was on the third floor of Building No. [-], and Wutiao got in unimpeded. No one cared about his fresh face during the whole process. He was so casual that he didn't look like the "campus" he knew.

"Why, it's different from what you imagined?" Xia You sat down by the window in the back row and joked, "Master, you've never seen a school with only two buildings and a fish pond, right?"

Wutiao looked around and nodded seriously: "It's true, it's strange."

He could always figure out where Xia You exploded, but Xia You was used to being calm and self-possessed, and he was better at stabbing softly than fighting directly.

This room was still thinking about how to counter the little bastard, when the sound of moving the desk suddenly came from beside him.Xia You turned her head and saw that Wutiao had moved a set of desks and chairs from the back of the classroom and leaned neatly next to her, even the chairs were almost touching.

"Okay, okay," Wu Tiao patted the table twice, and smiled with his chin propped: "Please take care of me, new tablemate!"

Xia You covered her eyes, thinking that the sun is really bright today.

Before the class bell rang, there were still students entering the classroom one after another.Almost all the children who will come to study are gathered in the district junior high school, so it seems that there are many people.The headmaster has been bragging about this matter for more than ten years, as if less than 20.00% of the people in District [-] who receive primary education can represent the wishes of everyone above and below.

Before the teacher arrived, Xia You spread out her senior textbooks to check the equations boredly, and solved a chasing problem several times, until she was sure that she had tried all the ideas before moving on to the next problem.

During this period, Wutiao occasionally held his chin in a daze, and occasionally poked his head to look at his questions.It's okay if this person doesn't look at it, but when he sees it, he always has to pick up a pen and write beside him, and he can often write new solutions that Xia You has never thought of.

"Okay," Xia You completely surrendered after several repetitions, "How on earth did you come up with the idea of ​​adding an auxiliary line here?"

Five fingers pointed to the pen that Xia You held between his fingers: "Teach me to turn the pen and tell you."

Xia You unconsciously moved her fingers, and the pen flowed smoothly from her ring finger to her index finger, attracting five more and more curious eyes.Xia You thought to himself that this man was a genius who could learn quickly, and was about to say yes, when his eyes suddenly darkened, someone swaggered in front of the desk, picked up his book and smashed it down heavily on the desk, "Bang "A sound attracted everyone's attention.

"Xia Youjie?" The man spoke eccentrically, like a behemoth junior high school student.He wore a watch on one side of his fat wrist, and his small eyes were emitting malicious light at any time, making anyone seem to be playing tricks.

The fat boy stretched out his arm and poked Wutiao in front of him, his fingers almost pierced his eyes.He intentionally lowered his voice, and said in that half-hearted voice, "I haven't seen you for a few days, so you found yourself a companion, right?"