【Summer Five】Iron City Wall

There is a well-known waste recycling plant on East Twelfth Street, and the owner of the plant is an old woman with a loud voice.The factory owner sits on several hills made of steel and plastic, and walks around the factory gate with his back bent all day long, dreaming of her dream of making a fortune silently.

Although the old woman is getting old, she can still see and hear clearly.She knew that someone often sneaked into the garbage factory, and she also knew that the person was a weird junior high school student.But I'm used to being alone, and it's fun to let in a sneaky little mouse once in a while, so I just let him go.

After discovering that the little mouse brought another accomplice over the wall half a year ago, the old woman slammed her mouth, suspecting that her backyard would be emptied sooner or later.

"Can it be connected?" Xia You lay on an abandoned windshield, leaned out half of his body, and rummaged through the waste pile for parts.

Wutiao sat on the floor, with a screwdriver in his mouth, deftly disassembled the drive armor panel with both hands, found the transformer core from the criss-crossing wires and gears, gently pressed the brake with two fingers, and raised his hand with a "click" sound , peel the core from the panel.

"Wait, don't worry." He replied, took out the screwdriver and inserted the parts Xia You handed over into the interface.There was a clear and solid sound at the connection, the core yellow light flickered, and blue and white electric sparks crackled along the line.Wutiao stared closely at the parts that were snapped together inside the panel, and his forehead was covered with thin sweat, which he wiped away casually.

Finally, the "fingers" of the driven armor trembled, followed by crisp mechanical sounds.

"It's done!" Wutiao jumped up and grabbed Xiayou: "Sure enough, it's the core problem! If we want to add the standard saber, we have to find a more suitable regulator—the one that my uncle mentioned last time. Kind of—this time there is absolutely no need for trial and error!"

Xia You pulled himself out of the waste pile, held a rusty handle in his left hand, and waved at Wujo complacently: "What did you say? Whose hand trembled so much that it almost melted the iron core last time?"

"Stop adding oil and vinegar." Wutiao disdainfully said, "You are just a little bit more stable than me, and you may burn yourself next time."

Xia You is at a competitive age, especially he can't tolerate this guy's repeated provocations in his best field.He immediately raised his eyebrows: "Just try it, I'm afraid you won't succeed?"

Before Wutiao returned the sarcasm, a small piece of cotton wool suddenly fell on the back of his hand.At first, I only felt a coolness coming from that piece of skin, and then I saw the "cotton wool" gradually shrinking, and finally disappeared without a trace.

An idea gradually took shape.Wujo opened his mouth to speak, but his voice was drowned out by a sudden loud buzzing——

It was the alarm bell that tore through the air and shattered the clouds. It galloped and roared into the back of each resident's head, and then viciously dug a hole and drove away.Everyone was stunned for a second, like a cold arrow caught off guard on the battlefield, or a tall building uprooted from the ground; they let the string of bells that signaled the bad news run like lightning, and a bone-chilling chill emerged from the depths of their blood.

"Quick! Go!" It was instinct that was faster than words.Xia You grabbed Wutiao's hand and dragged him to run wildly.Fear and worry were mixed on his face, the cold air was sucked into his lungs, and the snowflakes were falling slowly, like a grand and silent funeral.

Wujo immediately realized what was going on, and he also opened his legs.He was still holding the powered armor, but the hand held by Xia You unconsciously clasped it tightly, absorbing a little bit of warmth from the touching palms.

The old woman was waiting at the door, with a small battery in disrepair parked beside her.Seeing the two rushing out, she immediately put on the helmet and pointed to the back seat for the boys to jump on.Xia You was so anxious that he didn't care about other things, and hurriedly dragged Wutiao up to the seat, grabbed the safety lever, and galloped along with the battery car through the wind under the brave accelerator pedal of the old woman.

The road from East Twelfth Street to East Seventh Street was noisy.All households are scrambling for the last time to reorganize their equipment. Many people even climbed on the roof and beat and beat, trying to nail the tiles more firmly.Those with poor conditions have packed food and water, and moved their families along the main road to the vicinity of the furnace.Although the environment of those surface factories is harsh, they are very warm because they are close to the furnaces, so that every winter they are crowded with densely packed residents of District Five.

As long as they are lucky, the survival rate of these low-level citizens can reach [-] to [-]%.

The harsh alarm bells echoed in the sky all the time, and the houses spit out people who were ready to go.The hustle and bustle was full of panic, like a huge sponge pad, when squeezed lightly, lingering panic flowed out.

Xia You couldn't see Wutiao's face, but the hand behind her was clenched tighter and tighter, showing a faint coolness.In the bitter cold wind, Xia You buried the fear in his heart, tried his best to raise the ending sound, and forced a few smiles: "It's okay, it's okay, this time we have made [-]% preparations, it's just winter, repair a few The powered suit is over!"

"..." Wutiao seemed to respond, but it didn't seem to.Xia You listened with bated breath, and the guy whispered in his ear, "Save these words for your own courage, and drive the Kaida people."

"You...!" Xia You was anxious, but the cold hand behind her quietly relaxed.With a thought in his heart, he no longer cared about the five annoying words, but changed the topic: "The people who drive the Kaida really intend to live with the circuit board, no matter how you say it, it's better than begging for your life in a dirty and cramped furnace factory Much better!"

Wujo turned his head to look at the chaotic crowd like flies on the street, and let out a "humph".

The old woman sent them to the door of the house, Minako greeted them gratefully, stuffed a few bags of instant noodles and salt water into her hands, watched the battery leave, and then turned to the two children.

"Everything is ready, go back to your room to see what else you need to bring, and go down to the cellar before the alert level turns red." Minako pointed to the 600-meter-high meteorological tower in the center of the fifth district.The display screen on the surface of the tower is staying on a ladder-shaped warning table, and the lit sign is orange.

The boys opened the door to find the home almost emptied, save for large pieces of furniture and empty display cases.All the utensils are covered with a layer of protective film, and the window sill near the west has already turned the bright color of ice crystals.Hongshu is using wooden strips to nail all the doors and windows, so as to delay the early collapse of the house in the early winter as much as possible.

Xia You went back to the room and scanned around, making sure that nothing was missing, and at the urging of her parents, she climbed up the ladder with Wujo and entered the cellar.

The moment the movable door was closed, a thick layer of dust rose from the ground, and solidified into crystal clear ice slag in the blink of an eye.

During his second winter in District [-], Xia You was deeply shocked by Minako's ability to act.

Maybe it was a big loss last time, but this time she almost stuffed the whole house into the basement: camp beds, thick quilts, a five-liter thermos, all kinds of food, more than a dozen windbreakers and down jackets, etc., even including three A portable stove and a whole box of paper books from Hongshu's collection.

Xia You stared dumbfounded at his parents lighting up the stove, bright yellow flames jumping between the mechanism gears.He knew there was even a compartment in the cellar full of powered suits, all scraps he'd collected from his travels over the past year, enough for Hiroki to teach them lessons for several winters.

"You guys have to wear more." Minako shook off her coats and put one on each of Wutiao and Xia You, "There is still a tough battle to be fought, so don't take it lightly."

Hong Shu sat by the fire to adjust the instrument, heard that he took out the mobile receiver, turned it on, took a look, and said, "The weather tower is expected to be red tonight, and it will last for at least two months."

"Hanging Red" - the highest level of cold snap warning, prohibiting anyone from staying outdoors.The permafrost always "entertains" human beings with the greatest malice, and human beings have no choice but to hide.

Last year's Xia You shivered all night by the fire, but this year she somehow showed more courage.Perhaps it was due to sufficient preparation, or perhaps it was because there was an additional partner of the same age by his side—people always have the ability to be inspired by younger generations—Xia You almost felt at ease.

He led five into the storage room, lit the oil lamp and carefully identified the driven armor piled up all around.Minako thoughtfully moved a stove to the door, and the whole room was immediately warmed up.

"It's all here." Xia You looked around, "According to Hong Shu, we really have to sleep in the same bed with the drive suit for the next two months."

Wujo pulled out a modified power folding knife from the shelf, played with it for a while, and said with a smile: "Okay, let's wait and see who will develop a relationship with the cute and charming Miss Drive Armor first."

Xia You has been immersed in this man's muddled words for more than half a year, and is about to develop the ability to be invulnerable.Hearing what he said, he ignored it and walked forward.But Wu Tiao has never been a man of wit, he would only get more excited when Xia You shut up, and immediately began to chatter nonsense, breaking nine out of ten sentences.

They finally quieted down while the fire was being cooked.The dimness can always give people an atmosphere of contemplation. The two sat side by side at the door of the storage room, staring at the beating flames in a daze.

"Did you also live like this last year?" Wutiao swept away the madness a moment ago, and asked quietly: "When the alarm bell rings, hide in the basement, and the weather tower cancels the alarm before returning to the ground?"

When he calmed down, there was always a sense of coldness overflowing from his body like dust, cutting himself off from the world.Xia You had never been able to figure out what was going on in his mind, so he simply answered directly: "In general, this is roughly the case, but the actual situation is much worse."

"We just arrived here, and we didn't expect that the winter in the fifth district would be as fierce as the rumors. Although Hongshu had prepared in advance, we were still caught off guard. There were not enough things, so we could only count each day on our fingers. Halfway through Even went up once—probably when the alarm went back to yellow—and everything on the ground froze, couldn’t take anything with me, and came back empty-handed and caught a cold because of it.”

"Even so, we're doing better than most people. Do you see those people trekking home with packs and packs? They go to the furnaces for the winter. The furnace factories are mostly in underground cavities, Located on the surface of District [-], there are only a few pieces of wasteland next to the iron city wall. The sanitation standards are extremely poor, not to mention the amount of emissions. These people are willing to risk their lives to grab seats in such high-pollution and dirty areas. Everyone is glued together, huddled up with hands and feet to keep each other warm, just trying to survive. Some people even broke their heads and blood because of a few centimeters of space, just to let the child breathe more heat."

Xia You leaned closer to the fire, suddenly felt a lump in her throat, unable to speak.

When he thought of the thousands of pairs of extremely thirsty and depleted eyes, those tired and numb eyes, and the dry and rough hands and feet, his heart convulsed slightly, and heavy snow fell.

"Have you ever thought about changing?" Wujo said suddenly, with a deep voice, almost plunged into the jumping fire. "It's not just about bringing your family up to District [-]—have you ever thought about changing the status quo? The school's, District [-]'s, everyone's."

Xia You shuddered, holding her breath almost reflexively.

"What are you talking about...?" He couldn't believe it, "Do you know what you're talking about?"

Wujo just looked at him as usual, flames rushed into those eyes, and the corner of the sky was stained with a warm crimson.

"You thought, didn't you? They needed a voice... They longed for a will; someone was destined to seize the echoes of the ancient earth, someone was destined to be crowned. And you thought you were worthy - even in your deepest dreams, you I also planted delusions on my own!"

"I've never...!" Xia You resisted stubbornly, "Wishful thinking is the patent of idealists, and I think I run counter to them!"

"No, you have never stepped into the hell of reality, but have always lingered in the cradle of romance and ideals; you are an idiot who thinks you are rational, but you don't know that the sacred fire of the sacred mountain has already been stolen by you!"

He was aggressive, he wouldn't give an inch.When Wujo stared at Xiayou, he seemed to have entered a semi-fanatic state, the flames in those eyes suddenly rose high, sweeping across the entire sky like destruction, turning everything into fiery lava!

The old world was torn apart in the raging fire, Revatin shattered the stars, all the order collapsed, and new sprouts were born from the ruins of civilization...

And Xia You, under the gaze of the gods, also sank in the prairie fire.