implication [end times]

Ran Yu sat alone on the hard bed in the laboratory, the sweet taste of toffee still remained on the tip of his tongue, and his mind was a little dizzy.

Yan Ai had been walking for a while, and Ran Yu casually folded the remaining two unused candy wrappers into fish and starfish, and said softly, "Is it all right?"

"No, I think the kite you made for him looks better. This fish is too perfunctory, and it's not as good as the one you gave me last time." A voice sounded in Ran Yu's mind.This voice has no actual volume and timbre, just like the voice in a person's mind when reading silently. It is vague to describe, but the speed of speech is extremely fast, but the meaning expressed is very clear.

"Oh, because I'm tired today." Ran Yu said.

Ran Qiu: "Don't use your vocal cords, I don't want them to hear your voice. You are under surveillance, I know that. Don't worry, I will rescue you, soon. After you come out, you can eat whatever you want If you can eat it, you don’t need to apply for approval layer by layer like now, which is really troublesome.”

Ran Yu tried to change his way of thinking.Originally, what he said could be inconsistent with the thoughts of his mind, because human language has undergone complex processing during the production process, but Ran Qiu's communication method is like connecting two hosts directly with a data cable and opening almost All permissions.This kind of connection makes the expression of the two sides straightforward, and there is no other hidden elements that can be guessed.

These days, Ran Qiu often talks to Ran Yu in this way.Ran Yu was uncomfortable at first, because he was used to keeping a distance from other people over the years and had a strong sense of boundaries.The way humans are used to communicating is to establish a connection between two completely different individuals through language, etc., but the "connection" with Ranqiu is more like talking to oneself. The communication process is extremely fast, because there is no need to process redundant information or It is necessary to waste energy guessing vague semantics based on scenes and expressions, etc., and only needs to receive and give feedback.

Ran Yu: "You don't need to save me, we are different, this is where I should be. You are a sea ghost and I am a human. I don't eat people, and I don't want to see the people around me being eaten by you. "

"There is no difference. I do feed on your own kind, but don't you and your kind eat other creatures? The mutant snake you stewed before you left was delicious. Everyone eats it when they are hungry. Eat, why do you reject me so much?" Ran Qiu's voice paused, although the tone was still difficult to discern, but there was a clear sense of grievance in his tone, "You were not like this before you entered the city, why did you only enter the city for a month? Has everything changed?"

"Because at that time I thought you were really my brother, but you weren't, you've been using me and lying to me."

"What is cheating? I just changed your bad memories for you, nothing else has been changed."

Ran Yu threw the paper fish and starfish on the table beside him: "What kind of memory? What happened during the three months when I asked for leave before I entered the city?"

The voice in his head suddenly disappeared, and Ran Yu knew it was because Ran Qiu was unwilling to answer, so the connection was temporarily cut off.He breathed a sigh of relief.

In fact, Ran Yu wasn't very interested in this question, he was just worried that when he looked at these candy papers, he couldn't help thinking whether Yan Ai had brought his words and the paper kite to Lou Yue, and whether what he wanted to express could be done. was received.When he pays too much attention to such fragmentary thoughts, Ran Qiu, who is in the connection, will also know.

Ran Yu lay down on the bed tiredly, and reached out to touch the unused glass candy wrapper left on the table.He easily folded it into a little frog, held down its buttocks and then let go, watching it jump up and down.

For some reason, he suddenly remembered that outside the tea shop at dusk, someone suddenly came and sat opposite him in a menacing manner, and said to him in the tone of a robber, "I want ten."

At that time, Ran Yu thought it was an annoying leader who came to accept bribes, but in retrospect, it is more like seeing him stack a frog for "ordinary friend" He Rongsheng, and as a "best friend", he would be unhappy if he didn't have one, kid Like throwing a tantrum, you can only coax.

The messy thoughts were inadvertently dragged to the night when he was rescued from the mental hospital. If it were Ran Yu before, it would never be possible for someone to tie his hands

The corners of Ran Yu's mouth raised involuntarily, and he turned his head to glance at the table.He folded fish and starfish for Ran Qiu, and the remaining candy wrappers were not enough to stack twenty small baubles.

But he changed his mind and thought again, what's the use of stacking it for you?You can't come and see me—and you can't bring in a barbecue.

In the large conference room of the Second Ring Security Bureau, the heads of the security department in the main city sat neatly in a row, listening to Commander Albert's analysis of the current Second Ring's defense line against sea ghosts.

"In the past week, a large number of sea ghosts wandering around the third ring have launched several attacks on the high wall of the second ring, but they all ended in failure. The high-voltage power grids on the outside and top of the high wall have been completely destroyed after the victims of the third ring retreated into the second ring. When it is turned on, full-time personnel will monitor the operation status of the power grid around the clock, and the power resources in the second ring road have been given priority to the high wall.” Commander Albert’s eyes were firm, “At present, as long as the energy supply is guaranteed and the defense forces around the wall are strengthened, And make sure that the residents in the second ring do not have internal problems, and mass casualties will not happen again. We will continue to fight against sea ghosts for a long time. In the next relatively safe respite period, we should accumulate strength, wait for an opportunity to counterattack, and regain the lost territory ..."

When Albert mentioned "internal problems" just now, he glanced in Director Wei's direction.Director Wei felt a little anxious immediately. After Albert finished his speech, he presented the facts and made sense, briefly describing and resolving the recent conflicts between the disaster victims and the aborigines in the Second Ring Road, and emphasized the difficulty of the Security Bureau and the fact that every The selfless dedication spirit of a leading cadre, from this to lament the stability, harmony and orderliness of the status quo.

Lou Yue nodded on the surface to affirm the recent hard work of the Security Bureau, but he didn't fully believe what Old Wei said in his heart, thinking that he was suspected of whitewashing the peace.Director Wei also knew that such words could not be fooled in front of Lou Yue and Albert, but he would still say them.Much of what people say in formal settings is correct and useless, but it must be said.It's like fishing in the sea with a broken net. Although the words are full of loopholes, if you can catch a few stupid fish, you will make money.

Everyone has their own thoughts, but they will never express them easily in words.Even if we have to concentrate on distinguishing between true and false, right and wrong, and endure countless trivialities, human beings still rely on language to communicate and collaborate.For a few moments, Lou Yue was really envious of the sea ghost connection method mentioned by Yan Ai and others - including both non-verbal two-way communication, and directly using the convenience of the body to act.

When the meeting ended, Lou Yue wanted to go to the front line to understand the situation as usual.Recently, he took aim at the newly formed action team of Ding Taitai, He Rongsheng and others, and often followed their team to inspect the residents in the resettlement area.The newly established special operations team is no longer affiliated to the Security Bureau or the City Defense Force, but is directly responsible to the Safety Committee. In a sense, it can be regarded as Lou Yue's subordinate.

When Lou Yue contacted He Rongsheng, the latter's action team was blocking the scene in front of a ruin.

It is said that this ruin was originally the tombstone and ancestral hall of an important person on the second ring road, but it was destroyed in a thunderstorm a few years ago because of the outdated lightning protection facilities.Because the famous person advocated keeping everything simple during his lifetime, he was not allowed to build monuments and temples, and used all resources to develop the second ring road, so the residents of the second ring road were in awe and kept the ruins here.The victims of the third ring who were resettled nearby did not understand this historical origin. When the housing and food resources were very tight, some people trespassed on the ruins and stole tributes, and even set up tents inside to sleep, triggering the second ring disaster. The strong dissatisfaction of the residents... In addition to cultural barriers, there are also more and more conflicts in resources and life, and finally developed into a large-scale fire.

The fire did not cause heavy casualties. It can be seen that both sides came prepared and had long-standing grievances.Many of the corpses lying on the ground had been destroyed beyond recognition in the fire, even more terrifying than the crossing of sea ghosts.

If it was the members of the security bureau who discovered and dealt with it instead of the special operations team, the matter would likely be suppressed, and then hidden under Director Wei's words of "peace and stability". Discovery——Even now should be a special period for unanimously defending against sea ghosts.

It was evening when Lou Yue arrived at the scene. He raised his head inadvertently, and saw the sunset glowing in the sky, and the sparrow dragging its long tail feathers leisurely hovering around the edge of the high wall of the second ring road.

"When did that ghost thing appear?" Lou Yue asked.

"Is Captain Lou talking about sparrow fish?" He Rongsheng said, "It should have just appeared recently, and I haven't noticed it. It's very common outside the city, but it seems that many people in the city have never seen it, and they are quite surprised."

"They are mutated species, and they are dangerous. How could the Ministry of Ecology and Environment be so negligent..." Lou Yue said, and went to contact the person in charge of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment.

The newly formed tenth special operations team still has Ding Taitai as the captain, and Ta Ge and Zhan Yiye as the vice-captains.This time He Rongsheng, Li Shuxiu and others participated in the mission.Most of the team members were busy recording and investigating, contacting the technical department, arranging the wounded and disposing of the corpses. Only Li Shuxiu, who saw this scene for the first time, stayed where he was, looking extremely out of place.

As the only son of the deputy city lord, although Li Shuxiu was thrown to the grassroots level for training, he hid whenever he could in operational missions, and he didn't really see many dead people.When the Third Ring fell last time, he was on the priority evacuation list and was not sent to rescue because of lack of ability and delay.

Until today, when he was forced to carry out the mission, he thought that it must not be a big deal—there is no conflict that cannot be resolved by having a meal and drinking together. .He even once thought that it would be okay to lose the second ring, and that it would be nice to live in the first ring together in harmony.

Now, he seems to have finally touched a corner of the cruel real world in the last days.

Li Shuxiu looked at the scorched earth and dead bodies everywhere, and murmured: "Why..."

The wind whimpered above the ruins, the setting sun was like blood, and no one could answer him.