Flowers Blooming in the Wasteland

The bar was very deserted, only Miriam and his brother Meeks were there, and there was no other customer.

"Ah... Celeste?" Miriam greeted him as soon as she saw him, and asked nervously, "How is Lan doing now?"

"It's a little better." Thelister said succinctly, "I need something to eat."

Before Miriam could speak, Meeks on the side said, "Miriam, I know you haven't given up on that man, but you can't give him food for nothing anymore, Dad specially asked me to keep an eye on you Come on, now we are not rich, it is not the time for you to show kindness indiscriminately."

"I see." Miriam responded to her brother with some frustration, and turned her head to look at Celeste apologetically: "I'm sorry, I can't help it either."

"It's okay, I brought the money." Celeste took out the gold bar that Li Kailin gave him.

Seeing the real money in cash, Meeks' attitude improved a lot: "You can give him a small discount, as long as it's not too much, I'll pretend I didn't see it."

As he said that, he went back and continued to try to repair the broken CD player. People don’t like to go out in cold weather. After the CD player broke down, the number of people coming to the bar is getting smaller every day. After all, if you can only play cards and chess and chat It's the same everywhere, there is no need to brave the severe cold to come to the bar, which also leads to the fact that the fresh ingredients they collect from the farm are often put on the verge of spoiling and are not sold.

"Are you sure you want to buy eggs and green beans? These are quite expensive." Miriam said worriedly, "The price of food has risen sharply this winter, and it will definitely continue to rise. If you have money, you might as well buy more compression." Biscuits, otherwise what are you going to eat later?"

Celeste said: "I will find another way. Lan is taking care of his body now. He needs to eat something nutritious."

"You're right..." Miriam sighed softly, "If you have any difficulties in the future, please let me know."

Meeks coughed at the side, and Miriam added with a guilty conscience: "I will try my best to help you, as much as possible."

"Thank you." Celeste took the packaged food, and Miriam turned her head to Meeks, who was slapping the machine in vain, and said, "Enough Meeks, you thought it was a ball, just tap it twice. Can it be okay? You will only make the situation worse."

"Otherwise, what else can you do?" Meeks said, "Don't get angry at me if you don't like it. It's not that I don't want you to waste food. If you don't agree, go to Dad to protest."

"Wasting food? Lan is hurting now, do you still have any sympathy? Don't think I don't know who told Dad what happened last time."

"Blame me? My dad stared at the inventory all day long, and when he couldn't match the number, he came to blame me. What can I do? He said that I was hungry and ate three days of food in one go?"

"Excuse me..." Seeing that the siblings were about to quarrel, Celeste interrupted and asked Meeks, "If I help you fix the CD player, how much can you pay me?"

"You can fix this?" Meeks looked at him suspiciously. "Won't make the machine worse."

Miriam helped Celeste speak: "Let him try, otherwise, if you keep shooting like this, it will be futile even if you smash the machine."

Meeks is now treating a dead horse as a living horse doctor: "Well, if you can really fix it, I can give you a few packs of compressed biscuits."

"I want three gold bars." Celeste countered.

"You are exaggerating." Meeks exclaimed, "Ten years ago, three gold bars could buy a complete computer!"

"But it's not ten years ago now." Celeste insisted, "Three gold bars are indispensable."

Meeks thought to himself that he might not be able to fix it anyway, and if he did, the price seemed not a loss compared to the benefits brought by the restoration of the bar's popularity, so he gritted his teeth and agreed: "Okay, just Three gold bars."

It has come to such a time, and Celeste has no intention of hiding his abilities anymore. Although he has always been faintly uneasy, once it is discovered that he has knowledge and skills that his peers cannot possess, what will happen to him? He doesn't know the danger himself, but he can't control that much anymore.

He found waste electrical appliances from the grocery pile and disassembled some parts, and took a soldering iron to solder everywhere on the circuit board.Meeks couldn't understand what he was doing at all, but seeing the young man's confident look, he began to have a headache about the reward he had promised himself.

It wasn't until it was almost dark that Celeste repaired the CD player. Seeing the long-lost pictures and music appearing on the old TV, Meeks said with mixed feelings: "Uh...I didn't expect you to really fix it, But I don’t have three gold bars on hand—don’t look at me like that, the Tukes keep their word, and my dad will come to me behind closed doors at most to settle accounts, but the promised reward will never go back, but Dad is not here now, you have to wait for Dad to come back tomorrow morning and then come to get your reward."

"Okay." Celeste was actually not sure if they would renege on their debts, so he could only wait to come back tomorrow to see the situation.

---

After leaving the bar, Celeste put on the earphones again, and Masi's voice came through the earphones: "Master, is it a little risky for you to do this?"

Celeste asked: "Why is it dangerous to expose yourself? Can you tell me where the danger comes from?"

"...Sorry, I don't have the authority to answer this question."

"Since you can't tell me why I ignore a real threat for an unknown danger." Thelister said, "You should know that if I don't do something else, I will starve this winter. "

"Master, you are right, but for your safety, please act as low-key as possible." Masi said, "Oh, someone is here."

Celeste looked up and saw Old Hunter walking towards the bar. He had no interest in dealing with others, so he pulled up the hood of his coat and walked towards home.

"Thelister, wait!" Old Hunter stopped him.

Celeste had to stop: "Mr. Hunter."

"Did you... were you talking to someone just now?" Old Hunter asked a little strangely. Although he couldn't hear clearly from a distance, he did see Celeste talking.

"Just talking to myself." Celeste said calmly, "What's the matter?"

"I just wanted to buy some food to visit you." Old Hunter said, "I heard that you spent all your money on anti-inflammatory drugs. You are such a good boy. I hope good people will be rewarded, and your hard work will not be wasted. "

"Thank you." Celeste said blankly.

It wasn't the first day for Old Hunter to know Celeste, so he didn't mind his seemingly indifferent response, he just sighed and said, "I promised Lan that if anything happened to him, I would take care of him for him. You. Recently, you have to take care of him and can’t come to work at the hydropower station. I understand your difficulties, but the hydropower station is not up to me alone. If you don’t come to work, we can’t distribute the food to you. "

"I understand," Thurlist said.

"But this position will always be reserved for you. I guarantee that at any time, as long as you come to work at the hydropower station, you will have enough food to survive the winter. I have already told the shareholders that the hydropower station will lay off most of the apprentices. Promote you to an official technician."

"Thank you for your painstaking efforts." Celeste understands what a stable job means in such an era, and he can also imagine the old Hunter convincing other shareholders to let him, a 15-year-old half-old child, enjoy the treatment of a technician , It is definitely not that simple, but this painstaking effort is destined to be in vain, "Sorry, I don't plan to be a mechanic in a hydropower station."

"Uh, what did you say?" Old Hunter looked at him in surprise.

"That's what you heard." Celeste said, "I know where the generator sets 3 and 4 are faulty, give me ten gold bars plus 20.00% of the shares in the hydropower station, and I can fix it. "

"...boy, that's not funny," said old Hunter.

"I'm not kidding, you also know that generator sets 1 and 2 are nearly ten years overdue and are aging to the point where they could collapse at any moment. With the way you are wired now, as long as one of the generators fails, the other will It burned down due to overload, and then the entire town of Hummingbird will lose power, and the waterworks, mushroom factories, and farms will be forced to stop production." Celeste said, "I know that the property of the hydropower station is not up to you alone, you can talk to the mayor They negotiate, give up a portion of the profits, or see the hydropower die — and then the whole town of Hummingbird."

Old Hunter couldn't say a word. He looked at the expressionless young man in front of him as if he didn't know someone. Celeste said, "I'm going home, goodbye."

Old Hunter stood there silently and watched Celeste go away. The two malfunctioning generator sets were a problem he could not solve after more than ten years of headaches. Celeste, a teenager, was actually full of confidence. Said that such a complicated device can be repaired, which made him feel—this child must have been stimulated and got paranoid.

However, it would be great if this was true. Anyway, there have been so many things that cannot be explained by science and common sense. Old Hunter really hopes to see some miracles happen in his lifetime.