implication [end times]

Sun Da and Sun Er were stunned, with the heavy and greasy corpse of the giant python wrapped around their necks, walking forward in a daze and with difficulty, just like prisoners parading through the streets in shackles in ancient times.

When Ran Yu got home, He Rongsheng had already showered and changed his clothes, and was reading the "City Entrance Examination Ideological and Moral Class Intensive Lecture" with many red crosses.

This exercise book has obviously been turned over many times, and the edges of the paper have turned yellow and curled up. Next to each wrong question, there is a red pen marking the confusion and irritability of the person who made the question at that time.

"Why do you say that the highest value of a person is to contribute to the future of the main city? The answer is not explained?"

"Why can't you fight a tooth for a tooth? I don't understand."

"Is the questioner sick?"

"The most precious thing is not character, but food and weapons."

"The fate of mankind has something to do with me?"

……

He Rongcheng held back his laughter, and secretly gave Ran Yu a thumbs up—very frank, it's hard not to agree.

However, it is really impossible to get a high score only by the rate.About 5000 people take part in the city entrance examination every year, and only ten people are admitted.Although the exam is divided into two categories: cultural class and combat class, and Ran Yu's combat ability is the strongest He Rongsheng has ever seen, but so many mistakes in the ideological and moral class are really slowing down.

The culture course examination is mainly composed of "General Education Course" and "Ideological and Moral Course".The former covers a wide range, covering more than 20 categories such as physics, biology, chemistry, geography, history, logic, etc., and examines comprehensive cultural reserves and basic scientific knowledge.Ran Yu has a good grasp of this part, which can be seen from the almost complete simulation papers scattered on his desk.

The layout of Ran Yu's small bedroom is very simple, except for a narrow wooden bed, a large desk and a bookshelf with a bent load-bearing board. The bookshelves are neatly filled with tutoring materials for the exam.These paper materials are uniformly issued by the Human Resources Department of the main city. Retail investors over the age of 15 outside the city can fill in the data application form and the examination pre-registration form at the nearest post office, and wait for the post office to deliver them.

Taking advantage of the time to boil the water just now, He Rongsheng went to the warehouse in the backyard of Ran Yu's house to look for toolboxes in order to repair the generator.Although people outside the city have the habit of hoarding supplies for emergencies, He Rongsheng was shocked by the wide variety of things in the warehouse in Ran Yu's backyard.

All kinds of axes, engineering shovels, knives and guns are hung all over the wall in different categories. Some are handmade, some are distributed when working in the post office, and many of them are of unknown origin.Several huge wooden cabinets built by hand are filled with an assortment of compressed biscuits, canned food, nutritional supplements, energy gels and other emergency food.The medicines were also divided into many different small glass boxes according to their labels. He Rongsheng glanced over and found that many other boxes were full, except for the box marked with the blue label "Antibiotics" which was empty.

No wonder Ran Yu said before that there was no cold medicine to take.But he didn't replenish the stock in time, it's not like Ran Yu's character—maybe he's in a hurry recently, forget about it.

A basement was even dug under the warehouse, storing a lot of ice to preserve perishable ingredients.Food and weapons took up most of the warehouse, and the rest were spare generators, vehicle parts, repair tools and other items.

He Rongsheng only took a few glances before exiting with the toolbox. First of all, those things were placed so densely that he was a little nervous to see.Secondly, Ran Qiu has been following him with a strange expression on his face.

"What's the matter, Brother Ranqiu?"

Ran Qiu just stared at him, shook his head and didn't speak.

"Are you hungry?"

"Well, very hungry."

"Ran Yu said before that where are the eggs, you should eat something first."

Ran Qiu shook his head again.

He Rongsheng thought that Ran Qiu didn't like eggs, so he said, "Wait a little longer, your brother should be back soon, and then we'll have a hot meal together."

Ran Qiu just stared at him for a while, turned and left without saying a word.

This kid is so weird.He Rongsheng thought to himself, but when he thought of Ran Yu's withdrawn temperament when he first started working at the post office two years ago, he could somewhat understand it.

In fact, most retail investors outside the city also live together.Take He Rongsheng for example. He has lived in a residential area near the post office since he was a child, and several elders in the neighborhood work at the post office.When he was a teenager, he often went on missions with adults.The elders kept talking about him, saying that he was talented and intelligent, and that he would pass the city entrance examination and live an enviable and stable life in the future.It is said that the child of a certain family passed the entrance examination and entered the city, and often sent things to the family, and the family was honored wherever they went.

He Rongsheng grew up amid the expectations of everyone.As far as he knew, very few people chose to live in isolation.At least among the people he knew, Ran Yu was the first one.

Unlike regular workers like He Rongsheng who have to work on shifts even if they don’t have a mission to deliver, Ran Yu, who works part-time, is only responsible for missions, and only one or two trips a month.However, the length of these two trips cannot be guaranteed. It can be as short as two or three days, as long as more than a week, and the longest one lasted two weeks. Lao Wang, who is the person in charge of the branch, values ​​the ability of this temporary worker very much. The hardest and most lucrative tasks were left to him.Of course, He Rongsheng is often thrown by Lao Wang to Ran Yu to form a team. Lao Wang said that this is called double insurance.

He Rongsheng and Ran Yu have often taken classes together in the past two years, and they are fairly familiar with each other.Although Ran Yu looks very cold and slow, always drifting away from the crowd, and has unusual brain circuits, he is the most reliable person when encountering danger, and has saved many companions from monsters.However, every time someone wanted to express their gratitude, he had long since disappeared.

He Rongsheng pretended to concentrate on flipping through the thick exercise book, while pricking up his ears to pay attention to the movement of the door, secretly hoping that Ran Yu would come back soon.Although he was very active and could get along well with anyone, and it only took him three or four months to get acquainted with Ran Yu, he really didn't know how to get along with this even stranger brother.

During the quarter of an hour when he was sitting at the table reading the exercise set, Ran Qiu came quietly twice.He Rongsheng has been delivering goods for many years, and he is very alert to danger. He turned his head tactfully, and saw Ran Qiu leaning lazily on the door frame, looking straight at him, and said, "I'm hungry."

"Would you like some biscuits?"

"Don't eat."

After finishing speaking, Ran Qiu looked at He Rongsheng, smacked his lips regretfully, then turned his head and left in silence.

When Ran Qiu came to see him for the first time, He Rongsheng thought it was a child with a withdrawn personality who came to show his presence.The second time, He Rongsheng felt something was wrong.

The more he thought about Ran Qiu's eyes and expression, the more weird he felt.He Rongsheng absently flipped through the pages of the book, feeling that if Ran Qiu came here a few more times, he would have a nervous breakdown.

Fortunately, not long after, there was finally movement outside the gate.

"Ran Qiu, He Rongsheng—come out and move things!"

He Rongsheng let out a long sigh of relief, and hurried to the gate.Outside the door was Ran Yu, who was covered in blood but relaxed and happy, and two coolies carrying a giant python on their shoulders and a large bundle of firewood.

He Rongsheng and Ran Qiu, who came over from Ran Yuchong, waved: "He Rongsheng and I carried the snake to the backyard and cut everything. Ran Qiu, you bring in the wild vegetable basket and wash it together in the backyard."

When he said this, Ran Yu cut the rope, took down the firewood pile, the python and the vegetable basket, and said to the two coolies, "Let's go, you two are free."

Sun Da and Sun Er were very tired all the way, and immediately turned around and ran away after unloading the burden.

Ran Qiu rubbed his stomach and walked out the door, taking the vegetable basket from Ran Yu.

Ran Yu was busy checking whether the snake meat was broken under the bumps along the road, so he didn't notice that Ran Qiu approached him and sniffed it a few times beside him.But He Rongsheng who was standing behind saw it, and he also saw Ran Qiu's Adam's apple rolled slightly.

Before He Rongsheng had time to think about it, a huge dead snake head was stuffed into his arms, and his vertical pupils looked at him coldly.

"There is meat to eat at noon," Ran Yu said, "I'm lucky today. Although the snake has mutated, its blood is red and you can eat it."

At present, the animals infected and mutated by the "Sea Ghost Virus" can be roughly divided into two types. One kind is only morphologically mutated after being infected, and the blood is still red, and it is not infectious.The other is completely controlled by the virus, the blood turns green and is highly infectious.If the latter happens to humans, people will lose their past memories and sanity, and just want to eat people.This is called "changing shells" and is extremely dangerous.

The same point between the two is the change of taste.No matter what they preferred to eat before, mutated humans are more attractive to them.After all, the source of this virus—the "sea ghost", the devil that climbed up from the bottomless ocean—is to hunt and eat humans on a large scale. The disaster 70 years ago came violently and violently—it was like the natural enemy that this planet was not satisfied with the arbitrariness and ravages of human beings, so it was tailor-made for human beings.

Ran Yu and He Rongsheng worked together to carry the python to the backyard.This snake may have mutated too quickly, but it didn't eat enough food when it became bigger. It is only 200 kilograms at a height of 20 meters. If you don't look at the three heads full of sharp teeth, it can be called thin and thin.They evenly cut the snake's body into more than [-] sections. Just as they were about to move it to the basement of the warehouse to freeze, Ran Yu suddenly asked, "Why didn't Ran Qiu follow?"

"Could it have been robbed by those two people? Did you close the door just now?"

"It's definitely closed, I won't forget to close it."

He Rongsheng and Ran Yu hurried to the front yard, but saw the thick iron gate closed tightly, and Ran Qiu was washing vegetables by the sink with a vegetable basket.

Hearing the sound of footsteps, Ran Qiu raised his head and smiled: "I remembered that there is still a basin of clean water, there is no need to fetch water from the well."

Ran Yu felt relieved and said, "Okay, let's have dinner later."

Some vegetables and fruits were planted in a small open space in the front yard. At this time, the tomatoes were growing gratifyingly, hanging heavily among the green leaves.Ran Qiu was squatting next to the tomato field, his lips were red when he smiled—redder than ripe tomatoes.The noon sun was very strong, and Ran Qiu's eyes showed a deep and rich sea blue under such clear light.

For some reason, He Rongsheng's heart skipped a beat.He was about to take a closer look, but Ran Qiu lowered his head to wash the vegetables seriously, leaving only the back of an ordinary boy in cotton and linen overalls and shorts.It seems that the heart-shattering bright red and sea blue are just illusions produced by his eyes under the strong sunlight.

He Rongsheng had a strange feeling, but he couldn't figure out the source of this feeling.

"Hurry up, the three of us can eat at most one portion today, and put the rest in the freezer as soon as possible. Ran Qiu must be starving."

He Rongsheng nodded, hesitated for a while and said, "He came to me several times today and told me that he was very hungry and he didn't want to eat biscuits."

Ran Yu said with a clear smile: "He has a mouth full, he is very picky eater."

This seems to make sense again.He Rongsheng secretly reproached himself in his heart for thinking too much. Every family has its own way of getting along. He was probably too tired these two days, and his nerves were so tense.

Ran Yu was in a mess and wanted to take a simple shower.He Rongsheng volunteered to go to the kitchen, blanch the snake meat in boiling water, skim off the foam, add seasonings, and stew until soft. The freshly plucked radishes in the front yard and the washed and cut wild vegetables were put in and stewed together in due course.When Ran Yu came out after taking a bath and changing clothes, the pot happened to be boiling.There was a lively gurgling sound in the big iron pot. Ran Yu lifted the lid of the pot, and a large amount of water vapor gushed out, and the fragrance scattered.

A large bowl of meat dishes was served, and the soup was delicious. He Rongsheng was so fragrant that he even ate two bowls of rice, and Ran Yu also ate a full bowl of rice.Only Ran Qiu put down his chopsticks after picking up two pieces of meat.

"I'm full."

He Rongsheng raised his head from the rice bowl: "I only ate a few mouthfuls, didn't you keep shouting hungry this morning?"

Ran Qiu raised the corners of his lips and ignored him, stood up and briskly went back to the house, looking very happy and full of energy.

Ran Yu continued to pick up the rice: "It's okay, he often does this, shouting that he is hungry and not eating well, he must have gone to the warehouse to steal snacks."

"How can I not eat?"

"If he is forced to eat, he will cry and say he doesn't like it." Ran Yu put down his job and said helplessly, "They are all grown-ups, and they are very willful. But these days, as long as they are not hungry, what else can they ask for."

After resting all night, Ran Yu and He Rongsheng were ready to leave for the main city early the next morning.

Before leaving, Ran Yu told Ran Qiu carefully: If I really pass the exam and can’t come back, remember to replenish diesel for the generator regularly, otherwise the power grid on the wall and the small appliances in the room will be useless; A few barrels of diesel oil, I will send you things regularly, don’t go out casually; work hard, cook more, eggs and meat are stored in the underground freezer, don’t eat compressed food all the time; I will try to get the opportunity as soon as possible, then You go in, but you can't relax yourself, you can start to read books and prepare for the exam...

Ran Qiu nodded, looking very cute.

"Of course, it's quite possible that I won't get in at all, and I'll be back in two days."

Ran Qiu shook his head: "Brother, come on, your parents want you to go to the city before they die. I also want to go to the city in the future. I heard that there is a lot of food there."

Ran Yu stroked Ran Qiu's curly hair, and said lovingly: "Okay, let me go and make a special meritorious service, so that you don't have to take the exam."

Ran Yu smiled so much that he showed his pointed canine teeth, his eyebrows and eyes were curved, and they looked very bright in the morning light.

The corner of He Rongsheng's mouth twitched slightly, thinking that these two brothers are really good at thinking about the future.Not to mention that the acceptance rate of the city entrance examination is less than [-]% in [-], even if one enters the city, one still needs to make a special contribution in order to accept a relative into the city according to the regulations on the introduction of foreign population.But in a place like the main city, there are many people who have served in the army for a lifetime, and it is very difficult to make a third-class meritorious service.

Ran Yu finally said goodbye to Ran Qiu, and drove from the garage in the backyard.

When we circled near the front door at low speed, there was a flash of light in a small pit in front of us.Ran Yu was worried that blades or glass fragments scattered in front would scratch the tires, so he got out of the car to check.

"Off-road tires are not so fragile, you are too careful." He Rongsheng said lying on the window frame.Then, he saw Ran Yu walking back with a digital watch, his expression serious.

"It was worn on the wrists of the two coolies yesterday," Ran Yu said. "Not long after I let them go, they might have been killed."

He Rongsheng took a closer look and saw that there were a few bloodstains on the strap of the electronic watch.

"Not necessarily, it may be stained with the blood of the giant python yesterday. And if there are mutated beasts appearing nearby and making noises, we should hear them in the backyard." He Rongsheng opened the car door, near the small pit After looking around, "There are no traces of fighting, they must have accidentally dropped it."

Ran Yu brought the electronic watch to his eyes.The watch body is square, with many small buttons around the edges, and the surface lights up with fingerprint and iris detection requests when touched.The entire strap still maintains a closed loop shape, and deep buckle marks are stuck on the dark brown leather strap, which does not look damaged.Either someone took it off and re-fastened the strap, or just threw it out.But Ran Yu observed the wrists of those two people yesterday, and they were basically the same size as the bezel, so it is unlikely that they would be thrown off directly.

"Those two people were very strange yesterday, and this watch doesn't look like it belonged to someone from outside the city." Ran Yu said.

"You said last night that they attacked you while you were chopping wood?"

"Well, I suspect they took a fancy to my axe and wanted to grab it. I modified it myself. It's sharp and silky. I like it very much."

"...Not everyone is like you, they only have these things in their eyes." He Rongsheng looked at the watch, thought for a moment, and said, "Why don't we take it away first, this watch doesn't look like a Stuff that the average person in the city would use. But first, get rid of the excess."

With that said, He Rongsheng took out a multifunctional pocket knife from his pants pocket, picked the thinnest screwdriver to pry open the watch case, took out a positioning chip, and broke it off.

"You still know this technique?"

"A friend taught me, she passed the city entrance exam last year." He Rongsheng's tone was full of envy, "Let's work harder, if we enter the city, we might still see her... By the way, how about you?" I can go to the city to find your pen pal, he grew up in the city, and he can bring us to get acquainted."

"I sent him a letter last time saying that I want to take the city entrance exam, but I haven't received a reply yet." As he said, Ran Yu got into the car, turned around and grabbed his tactical bag from the back seat, and checked a locked flat bag in the bag. Only then did he start the engine with peace of mind, "I don't know if there is a problem with the delivery, but I know the address. If I enter the city, the first thing I want to do is to see him."

Although Ran Yu was driving very steadily at this time, with a calm expression on his face, He Rongsheng did feel that he was very happy from his tone.

"I really envy your friendship that accompanied each other from childhood to adulthood...it must have been ten years?"

"Well," Ran Yu nodded, finally couldn't hold back, and said with the corner of his mouth raised, "I can finally see him."

The first simple task that He Rongsheng entered the post office when he was a teenager was to deliver a letter to Ran Yu's family, so he knew about it.Because people living outside the city are very scattered and the post office is understaffed, a line often needs to accumulate a certain amount of goods before going one time.Ran Yu and his pen pal corresponded about every two or three months.

Reasonable correspondence between individuals is protected by privacy, and the post office has no right to check it. Colleagues sometimes ask jokingly, but Ran Yu is unwilling to say more.

He Rongcheng held back for a long time, but still asked: "Your pen pal, what kind of person is he?"

Ran Yu drove the car seriously, thought about it carefully after hearing this, and said: "I think he is a sincere and kind person, and everyone must like him very much."

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The author has something to say:

"Everyone Loves Him"