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​ ## 1. Wind

At four o'clock in the morning, Lin Shuang was awakened by a slight noise.

She opened her eyes, lay in the dark for a few seconds, then sat up.She glanced next to her - Su Lin and Zhao Xiaohe were still sleeping, but Zhang Xiaomei was not there.Zhang Xiaomei's sleeping bunk was empty, and the machete was not on the wall.

Lin Shuang picked up the crossbow, walked out of the factory quietly, and climbed onto the roof.

Zhang Xiaomei stood behind the parapet of the roof, holding a telescope in her hand and looking north.Her right knee was slightly bent and she didn't dare to stand completely straight. It was a habitual posture left by an old injury.

"What did you see?" Lin Shuang walked over.

"All the lights in the mining area have gone out." Zhang Xiaomei handed her the telescope, "Not a few lights, but all of them. Starting from ten o'clock last night, they went out one by one, and now it is completely dark."

Lin Shuang looked through the binoculars.On the northern horizon, the yellow light area that looked like a small town has now turned into darkness.Only in the direction of the entrance to the mining area, there is an occasional flash of light - like a flashlight or car headlight moving.

"What are they doing?" Zhang Xiaomei put down the telescope, "It's not a power outage. They have generators."

"Maybe they are doing an exercise." Lin Shuang said, "Maybe they are transferring someone. Maybe - they discovered something and they are strengthening their concealment."

“Should we act in advance?”

"No. The plan remains unchanged. Today you go to the Free Market - no, I will go to the Free Market by myself. You take people to scout the outskirts of the mining area, but don't get close, watch from a distance. Come back before dark."

Zhang Xiaomei glanced at her: "Are you going to the Free Market alone? There are a lot of people there, so if you encounter the Reaper's informant——"

"So I will go alone. A person has a small target and can run fast." Lin Shuang returned the telescope to Zhang Xiaomei, "You take Zhao Xiaohe and Wang Fang to the north. Zhao Xiaohe's left shoulder is still recovering, but walking and climbing is no problem. Wang Fang is responsible for carrying supplies."

Zhang Xiaomei nodded and slowly climbed down the ladder - she still had an old injury on her right knee and had to hold on to the wall when she squatted down, but there was no problem in climbing the ladder, but she couldn't be as neat as before.

Lin Shuang stood there and took another look at the darkness to the north.

She always felt something was wrong.All the lights in the mining area were turned off - if it was for concealment, why were they turned off in the middle of the night?If someone is being transferred, why is there such a big fuss?Or is there something happening in the mining area that is beyond their control?

She kept these two pieces of information in mind and came down from the roof.

​​ ## 2. Free Market

The free market is about thirty kilometers south of the factory, in an abandoned quarry.

Lin Shuang walked for nearly six hours before arriving.She deliberately slowed down and stopped to look around every step of the way - not because she was not physically strong enough, but because she wanted to see if anyone was being followed or ambushed on the road.

No.Everything works fine.The wasteland was as quiet as a huge tomb.

The entrance to the quarry is a wide slope, with piles of rubble left from mining decades ago on both sides.On the rubble pile, someone built a few simple sheds out of wood and iron sheets - they were the "facade" of the market. The sellers sat in the sheds and placed their goods on the ground in front of them.

When Lin Shuang walked into the market, there were about thirty people inside.Some were bargaining, some were squatting in the corner eating, and some were taking a nap against the stone wall.

She first walked around the edge of the market, observing everyone's faces, clothes, items they carried, and the way they looked at her.

Most people are not interested in her - a woman wearing rags, carrying a crossbow and having scars on her face is too common in the wasteland.But a few people looked at her a few more times, and their eyes lingered on her crossbow - it was a good thing and worth a lot of money.

Lin Shuang stopped in front of a stall selling dry goods.

The stall owner was an old man in his sixties, with a wrinkled face and a homemade cigarette in his mouth, squinting at her.

"What to buy?"

“Don’t buy it. Ask some questions.”

“You have to pay for asking.”

Lin Shuang took out a piece of compressed biscuit from his pocket - the kind brought by Fang Qing, well packaged, which is hard currency in the wasteland - and placed it on the stall.

The old man glanced at the biscuits and his eyes lit up, but his face showed no expression.He stuffed the biscuits into his inner pocket and said in a hoarse voice: "Ask."

"Has anyone been asking about anyone in Qingquan Town recently?"

The old man’s eyebrows moved.

"Yes."

"Who?"

"Men. Three. They are in their thirties or forties. They don't dress like predators, but they don't look like good people either. They wandered around the market for two days, and when they met, they asked everyone, 'Is there anyone who escaped from Qingquan Town?'"

"Where are they now?"

"I left yesterday. To the north." The old man took the cigarette out of his mouth and knocked ashes on the soles of his shoes. "Girl, I advise you not to inquire about these people. They are not looking for people - they are looking for things."

"What?"

"I don't know. But when they were talking, I heard a word - 'seed'." The old man put the cigarette back into his mouth again, "There is something in Qingquan Town that is valuable. More valuable than human life."

Lin Shuang didn’t ask any more questions.She stood up from the stall and walked around the market again.

She found the traces left by the three people the old man mentioned - a pile of cigarette butts with the pre-war brand name "Hongta Mountain", which was a luxury item in the wasteland.There are also several footprints, with large shoe sizes and deep lines, which are the marks of military boots.

Military boots.Hongta Mountain smoke.Went north.

Lin Shuang kept this information in mind and left the market.

​​ ## 3. The way home

On the way back to the factory, Lin Shuang took a different route - taking a big detour and passing through a ruined building that she had never been to before.

The ruins are a residential area. There were about a dozen six-story buildings before the war. Now they have all collapsed, leaving only a few broken walls and mountains of broken bricks.Lin Shuang originally just wanted to take a shortcut, but when she passed a relatively complete building, she saw something.

A door.Iron door with lock.It's not the kind of lock that hangs on the outside, but a deadbolt lock that's welded to the door frame and can't be opened from the outside.

But there was no sign that the door had been opened.That means there might be someone inside.

Lin Shuang knelt down and put his ear to the door to listen.

There are sounds inside.A very light, regular sound, like something hitting the ground - click, click, click.

Lin Shuang stood up and looked at the lock.It was an ordinary latch lock, made of iron, and the bolt was rusty.She hit it three times with a stone ax and the lock bolt broke.The door opened.

Behind the door is a downward staircase with six steps.There was a layer of dust on the steps, but no footprints - the man had not been out of the basement for a long time.How did she survive?

Lin Shuang walked down the stairs, the light of the flashlight illuminated the basement.

A young woman was huddled in the corner, wrapped in a moldy quilt.Her hair was long, knotted, and covered in dust.Her face was so thin that her cheekbones protruded, her lips were chapped, and her eyes were half-closed.Her right hand struck the ground repeatedly—tap, tap, tap—and that was her only way to cry for help.

"Who are you?" Lin Shuang squatted down and the light of the flashlight moved away from her face - it was too dazzling.

The woman’s lips moved a few times and she made a hoarse, almost inaudible sound.

"Water..."

Lin Shuang took out the kettle from her backpack, unscrewed the lid, poured water into the lid, and handed it to her mouth.The woman came closer like an animal, and the moment her lips touched the water, she began to suck hard, making a gulping sound.

"Slow down. Drink slowly." Lin Shuang took the lid off the pot and waited for her to swallow before pouring the second sip.

After three sips, the woman's eyes opened a little.The pupils were dilated, but slowly began to focus.

"What's your name?"

"...Shen...Shen Yu."

"Who locked you here?"

Shen Yu's lips trembled.She didn't answer, but tears fell from the corners of her eyes, leaving two white marks on her dusty face.

Lin Shuang didn’t ask again.She helped Shen Yu up from the ground - Shen Yu's weight was frighteningly light, like a handful of dry firewood.Her legs were unsteady and she leaned on Lin Shuang.

"Can I leave?"

“No…I don’t know.”

"Try it."

Lin Shuang helped Shen Yu up the stairs, walked out of the iron gate, and walked out into the sunshine.Chen Yu was stung by the sunlight and closed her eyes, but the corners of her mouth were slightly raised - that was the instinctive and subtle happiness that comes when someone who has not seen the light for a long time comes into contact with the sun. Page (1/3)