The distribution of houses and alleys in the slums constitutes the character "Well". There are many people living on the periphery of the well, and the farther you go to the center, the less people live there. The periphery is close to Jinse Avenue, and the location is better. It is the territory that most people compete for.
Many houses in the well collapsed and blocked the alleys. People here walked directly from the pile of rubble, which was inconvenient at first, but after walking a lot, they got used to it.
The ruins are piled with broken stones and steel bars, which are uneven. If they are not careful, they will fall down and hold people down. At the beginning, they walked very unsteadily. Several times they almost stepped on the air. Luo Ye dragged her behind him, and his strong arms wrapped Holding her waist, half-supporting and half-holding led her across those bumpy roads.
When passing a broken wall, Chu Chu stood on the wall, ready to jump off.
Luo Ye stood under the broken wall and watched, and when he jumped down, he subconsciously reached out to catch her.
Chu Niao wrapped her neck around his neck and was a little higher than him. When she lowered her head, she could see his involuntary frown. The corners of her mouth couldn't stop rising, and she tightened her tightly-circled arms.
Although he has no memory of their past lives, he can always reveal his inadvertent care in the details, which is enough for her.
He has never been a person with such rich emotions, and he has given her rare tenderness.
The two continued to walk into the well. There were obviously not as many residents inside as there were outside, but the two of them saw quite a few half-old children carrying buckets and basins along the way.
As soon as those children saw them, they all ducked to the side, like frightened little beasts, watching them vigilantly, ready to throw away things and escape at any time.
Chu Tuo stopped, bent down slightly, and faced the youngest child in a gentle tone: "Can I ask you a question?"
The child tightened the basin in his hand, looked up at her timidly, and quickly lowered himself without speaking.
Chu Chuo touched his pocket and took out a bag of small biscuits that he was going to eat when he was hungry: "This way, let's make a deal, you answer me a question, and I'll give you a cookie."
Children living in slums, no matter how young, know how to deal with people and maximize their interests. Of course, it is not that they are sophisticated, but they are forced to learn how to struggle and survive in the quagmire.
Just answering the question and getting food, even if it's not a small child, is just as tempting to anyone here.
Almost as soon as he tore open the biscuit bag, the child nodded slowly.
Chu Chuo looked at the other children: "Why are you all holding buckets and basins, what are you doing?"
"Fill water."
The child answered wisely, saying only the purpose of the bucket and the basin, but not the reason.
Chu Chu didn't mind either, so he handed him a small biscuit, and then asked, "Why do you have to go so far to pack water?"
These people do not live nearby and have to travel a long way to get water here.
The child immediately put the biscuits in his mouth and swallowed them after a few gulps, fearing that someone else would come and grab them, so he swallowed and replied: "There is no running water in the slum, there is only one well for water, and everyone has to go there. Get some water."
Chu Chu looked up at Luo Ye, who nodded.
Even in an urban village, every household used to have tap water. After the natural disaster, the water pipe was broken and damaged, and no one repaired it, so the water was cut off naturally. , drinking water from a single well.
District 1 is the most prosperous place in the Drum Tower. It looks bright and bright on the outside, but the sun never shines into the slums. Just like light and shadow, one side is always bright and the other is dark.
They were the same in District 9, except that the yard they chose happened to have two wells, which solved the problem of water inconvenience.
And other jurisdictions are sparsely populated, which is also the reason. Rather than going to remote places, it is better to be close to the headquarters, at least to see the light outside.
I felt a little uncomfortable when I heard it at the beginning, but this is also the normal state of the end of the world. The headquarters has done everything it can to protect the security of the base.
Chu Chu gave all the biscuits to the child who answered the question, patted the dirt on his knees and stood up, took Luo Ye's hand and left.
Luo Ye couldn't help but look at her a few times, Chu Chu knew what he was thinking, he gently shook the hands they held each other, and his voice was unexpectedly calm: "I know this is the normal state of things in the world, we can't change it, and we don't want to. All that matters, I just want to make our days better now."
our day...
Luo Ye pursed his lips and said nothing.
Is it us, or me?
He wanted to ask her who and who this we were referring to.
But in the end, he didn't ask, and he tightened his hands a little: "Well."
The two found the location of the well. In a yard, the yard was still intact. There were long queues of people queuing for water. One well feeds nearly 10,000 people in the entire slum, and it is almost dry every day. After spitting out water, the people in the queue started in the early morning, and sometimes those who came later couldn't wait for a few hours.
"Get out of the way! Don't get in the way." Several young people later broke the harmony with the team. They pushed away the people waiting to get water all the way, and forced their way to the front of the team.
"They're here again, let's go. Let's fight when they're gone." As soon as some people saw them, they took the initiative to walk aside to avoid them, obviously not wanting to provoke them.
But not everyone was afraid of them. Several young people in the queue who were waiting to fetch water stood up and tried to stop these people's arrogant and unreasonable behavior.
"What do you want to do, everyone is lining up, why do you cut the line?"
"You don't just rely on knowing the outsiders, but this is a slum, and it's not the turn of outsiders to run wild here."
"Some people feel superior when they are lackeys."
"What did you say? Who are the lackeys?"
"Whoever took the seat and said who."
"court death!"
"What do you think, I'm afraid of you!"
The two sides pushed and shoved, and as a result, a fight broke out after a disagreement, and the scene became chaotic for a while.
Several young people fought. Children and old people who did not participate in the battle were also killed. They hugged their heads and dodged. Some were accidentally injured, some were knocked to the ground, and some just found an opportunity in the chaos and hurried away.
Chu Chu didn't expect to see such a melee here. They were already close. Those people were red-eyed, and they didn't distinguish between you and me. Luo Ye was worried that she would be accidentally injured, so he protected her and left as soon as possible.
"what-"
In the chaos, a teenage girl was pushed and bumped in their direction. The edge of the water basin filled with water hit Luo Ye's waist. Most of the water spilled out, splashing him all over, and a little. in the beginning.
Chu Chu helped the girl who fell to the ground and asked, "Are you alright?"
"It's okay..." The girl was a little stunned, but she didn't expect that they not only didn't beat and scold themselves for throwing water on them, but also helped themselves up.
After Chu Chu made sure she was all right, he immediately turned to look at Luo Ye. His clothes were almost all wet, dripping with water, and his thin shirt was sticking to his waist, which was a little see-through.
Chu Chu quickly pulled Luo Ye away, found a quiet and unoccupied place, and reached out to take off his clothes: "Take off the wet clothes and dry them, you will catch a cold later."
Luo Ye hurriedly grabbed her hand, his Adam's apple rolled, and his voice was hoarse: "I'll do it myself."
Chu Chu was stunned for a moment, then turned around slowly, and said slowly, "Oh, then take it off."
There was a rustling sound behind him. Luo Ye unbuttoned the button and took off his shirt, and shook it in his hand. After a while, steam came out of the wet clothes, and soon the water vapor was dried by the high temperature, and the pants on his body It also dries under the baking of body temperature.
"Are you all right?" Chu Chuo asked him absently, looking down at his toes.
The man didn't answer, but squatted down directly, pinching her slightly damp trousers with his fingers, urging his ability to quickly absorb the moisture, and when he retracted his hand, his fingertips inadvertently slid across her slender bare feet.
"And here." Chu Tso pinched the hem of the clothes around his waist, it was a little wet there, but it wasn't a problem if it didn't dry.
Luo Ye rubbed his fingertips with his hands behind his back, and then his palms brushed over there, and the water turned into steam and disappeared into his palms.
The two had different thoughts, and neither of them spoke.
"Little Feather?"
The voice of a young man came from behind the broken wall behind the two, breaking the strange atmosphere between them. The two turned around and saw that the girl who had just bumped into them had come behind them, and they didn't even know when they had just bumped into them. Noticed.
"Xiaoyu, is that you?"
After the wall was broken, the man's doubtful question came again.
The girl hurriedly replied, "Brother Yixuan, it's me."
The girl nodded to them, then nimbly climbed over the broken walls and ruins with the half-bath of water left.
"There are too many people fetching water today. I only fetched half a pot and came back. Brother Yixuan, please drink it." The girl's voice was brisk, and she didn't mention what happened just now.
The two were about to leave, but the animal bones in their pockets vibrated violently at this moment. At the same time, there was a sound of ceramics falling to the ground and shattering from behind the broken wall.
"Brother Yixuan!" The girl's voice was eager.
"Cough cough..." The young man coughed weakly, and suddenly asked firmly, "Xiao Yu, who is outside?"
Chu Chu hurriedly took out the animal bone from her pocket, and the bone vibrated even more, almost falling out of her hand.
Unexpectedly, the animal bones that have not been moving all the time will resonate here, Chu Chu and Luo Ye looked at each other.
This is really unintentional.
There was a noise on the wall, Xiaoyu was lying on it and looked at them, he hesitated for a moment before saying: "My brother wants to see you."
Well, they do too.
Behind the broken wall was a half-collapsed house, and a blind young man sat under the roof that was still covered.
The young man's face was calm and his body was clean. He was not at all disgraced like most people living in the slums. Even if he lived in such a dilapidated place, he still maintained a decent face and posture. Extraordinary young man.
Before Chu Chu had figured out how to make it clear to the other party, the young man opened his mouth first: "Can I see the bone in your hand?"
Chu Chu was slightly surprised, but he didn't expect that the other party would offer to see the animal bones, and he seemed to be able to see it.
Xiaoyu was both surprised and delighted, and excitedly squatted in front of the young man and asked him, "Brother Yixuan, can you see it?"
The young man shook his head: "I can't see anything else, but I can 'see' a bone, like the teeth of some beast."
Xiao Yu was very disappointed by this, and at the same time, she looked curiously at the animal bone in Chu Nao's hand. With such a strange shape and color, she guessed: "It should be a mutant tooth."
"Yes, it's the teeth of the 'steel-toothed beast', can you sense its existence?" Chu Chu handed the animal bone to the young man and guided him, "Try to transform it."
"Transform it?" The young man was puzzled, but the moment he held the animal bone, he understood the meaning of the first words.
She almost didn't need to say anything, as if he was born with the animal's bone, he felt the strong resonance from the animal's bone and the desire to transform it.
"How do you want to transform it?" the youth asked.
Chulu: "The teeth of the steel-toothed beast are the best material for making daggers."
"I understand."
The two were playing dumb puzzles, and Xiao Yu next to him was dumbfounded, and even became wary of Chu Chu.
"Wong buzzing..."
The animal bones resonated strongly in the hands of the young man, and the sound lasted for a long time, while the young man held the animal bones motionless. At first, Xiao Yu was able to wait patiently until he saw a look of pain on the young man's face, and his forehead was also full of pain. Covered with fine sweat, she became anxious and wanted to go up and knock down the animal bones, but Chu Chu pulled her in time.
"Don't disturb him, he will be attacked."
Xiao Yu didn't dare to act rashly, and instead stared at Chu Chuan hatefully, and asked her, "What did you do to my brother?"
Chu Chu's voice was soft: "Don't worry, it will not do him any harm."
Xiaoyu didn't believe her words, and pushed her away suddenly: "Liar, Brother Yixuan looks very painful."
Luo Ye stretched out his hand to support Chu Chu, and glanced at Xiao Yu coldly, the other party suddenly lost his words.
"Cough cough..." At this moment, the young man woke up, and he "looked" in Xiao Yu's direction, "Xiao Yu, don't be rude, I'm fine."
After he finished speaking, he turned to Chutu and Luoye again, he stretched out his hand, and a sharp black dagger lay there quietly: "My feeling is very strange, it is very comfortable when transforming it, and through it I can Briefly 'see' something, can you tell why?"
At the beginning, I really didn't expect that the other party would be successful in the first transformation. You must know that even the very powerful forgers she knew in the past life often failed, and it was very rare that one succeeded, let alone the first induction. .
She took the dagger carefully and said, "Of course you can, in fact, we are here today to find someone like you."
"us?"
"That's right, you probably don't know, you are actually a power user, the power is 'forging', you can make the weapons you want by transforming the animal bones, just like just now, the power made by the forger Weapons are sharp weapons against mutants."
The young man flexed and stretched his fingers, looking confused: "You mean, a power user?"
"Yes, you are a power user, but compared to other power users, your power is more special and needs to be stimulated by animal bones. Not only can others not see it, but it is also difficult for you to know it without stimulation. "
The young man was silent for a moment, and there was light in his dull eyes again: "What can I do for you?"
Chu Chu smiled slightly: "Wrong, we should ask you for help, I want to ask you to help make a few weapons, these are the drawings I drew, but I didn't prepare them in advance, these drawings should not be used."
The young man shook his head and motioned for Xiaoyu to take the drawing: "It's okay, Xiaoyu can describe it for me."
Because they didn't bring other production materials today, they had to agree to come back tomorrow, and the reward was to pay them a pound of rice and half a pound of noodles for successfully making a weapon.
Rice noodles are expensive, but worth it.
After all, the forgers in the previous life were almost monopolized by the base and the guild. Others wanted to find a forger to tailor weapons for themselves, and it was hard to find a thousand dollars.
When he left the slum, Chu Tso solved a problem on his mind and was in a very good mood.
"I didn't expect to find a forger for us. Aye, do you know how precious a forge is? It will be more difficult to find a forger to customize weapons in the future than to ascend to the sky."
Chu Chu walked backwards in front, dancing and talking, Luo Ye looked at her silently, but he usually spoke very little, Chu Chu didn't notice anything unusual.
"By the way, I'll give you this dagger, and you won't use your bare hands anymore, it's easy to get hurt..."
"Be careful."
At the same time as Chu Chu took out the dagger, Luo Ye took her wrist and pulled her into his arms in a flash. At the last step, she would hit the telephone pole behind her.
Chu Chu blinked her eyes, and suddenly felt her palms wet. She looked down and saw that her hands were full of blood. She moved her fingers in a daze. down.
When he was pulling himself, his arm was slashed by the dagger, and a long, deep wound lay across his forearm, bleeding profusely.