After the disaster

Qiu Cheng and Ah Chang took the train for more than ten hours to a tropical coastal city in the south.

After the train enters the urban area, it will slowly slow down. In order to prevent people from picking up the train and stealing goods, there will also be patrols on both sides of the railway.In order not to be discovered, Qiu Cheng and Ah Chang got off the train quietly before the car entered the urban area.

The place where they got off was the urban-rural fringe of the city, where there were houses and farmland.

Standing on the side of the railway track, which is higher than the surrounding area, the first thing that catches the eye is a scorched field. The crops in the field have been burned to the point where only some high and low black stubbles are left. The ground is covered with a thick layer of thick ashes.

Not far away, there are some concrete houses standing in twos and threes.In real terms, these houses should not be considered particularly old, but at this time they look particularly dilapidated, some houses have their doors and windows wide open, some broken glass and other sundries lie on the ground, and there are blankets everywhere. Layers of ash, obviously no one has lived here for a while.

Qiu Cheng led Ah Chang along the railway tracks, and whenever a train passed by, the two of them would avoid it for a while.

After walking like this for more than 20 minutes, when they were about to enter the urban area, a tricycle passed through the bridge hole under their feet on the road below. After the young man on the tricycle passed through the bridge hole, he stopped the car and looked back. , asked Qiu Cheng and they said: "Hey, buddy, do you want to take a car?"

"How is the fare calculated?" Qiu Cheng asked while standing on the bridge.

"Hey, are you from out of town? Where are you going? If it's on the way, I don't need money to give you a ride." The young man grinned at Qiu Cheng and the others.

Hearing what he said, Qiu Cheng took Ah Chang down. Given the situation of the two of them, they generally don't have to worry about being ripped off.

"We are going to the city." Qiu Cheng said to the man after going down.

"That's just right. I'm going to the city too. Come up." The man said, waving at the two of them readily, signaling them to get in the car.

After they got on the tricycle, the young man started the car again and drove along the narrow road in front of him. His tricycle was powered by electricity, and there was a battery under the seat, so it was quite powerful to drive.

"Are you two from the north? Why are you coming to the south at this time?" On the way, the young man struck up a conversation with Qiu Cheng and the others.

"Come to find someone." Qiu Cheng said.

"Oh, I'm here to find someone. It's not easy to find someone these days. Many people have changed places to live. In such a big city, no one knows anyone..."

This young man talked a lot. I heard that Qiu Cheng and the others came to find someone, and they didn't need anyone to talk to them, so they talked a lot by themselves.

"We just walked this way, why is there no one living here?" Qiu Cheng asked interrupting him.

"You mean the nearby village?" The young man immediately changed the subject and began to chatter: "This place is too far from the city, most people don't want to live here, and there are quite a lot of vacant houses in the city these days. Make an application, and the government will arrange it. Before, there were people who were willing to come and live in the nearby fields, but now they can’t even grow crops, so there is no one to live in.”

"Just saw those crop fields that were burned by fire? That's also helpless. At the beginning, the crops were not ruthlessly burned, but those crops are going to flow to the north, and they can't be blocked. There is no way. The one above After the document was issued, all the crops on our side were burned, but it was not in vain. The compensation was still given, but it was too little. At the beginning, there was dissatisfaction. There were a few times, but now it has stopped. It's..."

Qiu Cheng and Ah Chang heard him talk all the way until the young man rode his tricycle to a fork in the nearby industrial area.

"Okay, I'm at the place, you two hurry up and go down, and you will be criticized by the leaders of our factory after a while."

"Thank you, I'll give you this as the fare." Qiu Cheng took out a steamed bun from his backpack as he spoke. He brought a lot of steamed buns with him when he went out this time, which can be used as rations or sometimes To pay travel expenses or other expenses.

"Yo! It's white flour! Northerners eat well!" Seeing that what Qiu Cheng brought out was a white flour steamed bun, the young man burst into joy.

At this time, even if the leader finds out that he has deserted, there is no need to be afraid, as long as he breaks off half a white flour steamed bun and gives it to him, it is guaranteed that nothing will happen.But it's better not to, the big white steamed buns, it would be nice to take it home to honor your old mother, it can't be cheap for those grandchildren.

After the young man had gone away on a tricycle, Qiu Cheng took a closer look at his surroundings.

It was dusk at this time, and many workers came out of the factory. There were people coming and going in the industrial area, and many of them were carrying some grain and vegetables in their hands.

According to what the young man told them just now, in this city, agriculture has basically stopped. Fortunately, there are still many factories here, and now many factories have resumed production. With the number of factories in this city, even if People from all over the city went to work in factories, and they were not afraid that they would not be able to make arrangements.

And the workers in these factories rely on daily labor in exchange for rations. On the one hand, the government strictly guards against local agricultural products, and on the other hand, it encourages industrial development to appease people. So far, the overall situation is still very successful.

In this industrial area, there is also a large-scale night market. I heard from the young man just now that in their city, the industrial area is far more lively than the commercial area. If they want to find someone, they can also go to the industrial area. Try your luck first, especially if you post a missing person notice in the night market, the effect should be better.

Qiu Cheng and Ah Chang followed the flow of people towards the night market, and soon arrived at the place. The night market in this industrial area is very large, at least three times the size of the night market in Xinnan City.

Probably because the workers in the industrial zone can receive rations every day, the whole market seems to be quite active.In the night market, there are sellers of daily necessities and luxury goods. The vendors exchange these items for food in the hands of some factory employees, but transactions between food and food are rarely seen.

Qiu Cheng saw many people selling electronic products on the stalls, including mobile phones and laptops. These products looked very new, as if they had just been produced in the past few months.

There were people coming and going in the night market, Qiu Cheng and Ah Chang walked quietly among the crowd, getting some useful information from people's conversations.

From people's unintentional conversations, Qiu Cheng learned that several hospitals in this city were specially planned to treat patients infected with Y virus. Although those experts said that Y virus would not spread from person to person, people I still avoided those hospitals far away, and never went there if I had nothing to do.

Qiu Cheng took Ah Chang from one end of the night market to the other, and then went to a nearby bus stop. There are no buses there now, but the old bus plate is still there.

There, he found the nearest hospital that was said to be full of people infected with Y virus. Qiu Cheng took out a white flour steamed bun from his bag again, raised his hand to hail a tricycle, and wandered on the relatively wide road outside the night market. There are many electric tricycles for carrying passengers.

"Where are you going?" One of the tricycles reacted the fastest, overtaking the other tricycles nearby, and rushed to stop in front of Qiu Cheng and the others.

"XX Hospital." Qiu Cheng said.

"Tsk, where are you going?" The black and thin man riding a tricycle frowned, as if he didn't really want to go.

"This is travel expenses." Qiu Cheng handed him the steamed bun.

"!" The man driving the tricycle took the steamed bun from Qiu Cheng, opened his eyes, took the steamed bun under his nose and sniffed it, then took another bite, chewed it, swallowed it, and then swallowed it again Drooling, put the remaining steamed buns into his pocket, and waved to Qiu Cheng and the others: "Get in the car."

Qiu Cheng and Ah Chang got into the car, and the man drove the tricycle very fast with full power, and after a while, they arrived at an intersection near the hospital where Qiu Cheng and the others were going.

"Just here, I won't go ahead. I still have a wife and children at home." The man stopped the tricycle and refused to drive further.

Qiu Cheng didn't say much, and took Ah Chang directly to get out of the car. It would be better if this person didn't go there.

"Are you going back later?" the tricycle rider asked again.

"Back, it's just going to the train station." Qiu Cheng said.

"That's fine, I'll just wait here. Come back and take my car later. The hospital can't find a car at all."

"Okay." Qiu Cheng agreed.

This intersection was only 300 meters away from the hospital they were going to. Logically speaking, the area next to the hospital should be relatively lively, but this area seemed very depressed.

The shops with billboards on both sides of the street were all closed. It was just dark at this time, and there were no pedestrians around. Occasionally, vehicles passed by on this main road, and they came and went in a hurry.

However, when they walked through this intersection and saw the hospital, it was another scene.

This hospital is full of patients infected with the Y virus. There are many beds in each ward. Some beds are of the same style as in the hospital, while others are not. Obviously they were moved from somewhere else.

Not only the wards, but also the corridors and even some halls are full of beds. At this time, not all the patients are on the beds. Some patients can still walk around and go to the public areas of the hospital for activities. There were also many people sitting in twos and threes in the small garden behind.

This hospital was brightly lit and people were coming and going, but there was no lively atmosphere. The air was filled with a heavy and dead silence that could not be ignored, because here, people died every day.

Qiu Cheng and Ah Chang squatted on a big banyan tree outside the hospital, looking through the light at the busy doctors and nurses inside the hospital. Among them were men and women, Chinese and some foreigners. They are still working hard in the hospital where they are shunned by others.

"Let's go." Qiu Cheng patted Ah Chang beside him, signaling him to follow him, and the two left the inpatient building silently under the cover of the big banyan tree.

There is a water tower on the roof of this inpatient building. Qiu Cheng poured all the "jiebaidu" in his body into the water tower. He still has no way of knowing which "jiebaidu" will play a big role. When they come next time, will there be fewer patients in this hospital, and will the fatigue on the faces of the medical staff be reduced a bit.

After leaving this hospital and returning to the intersection just now, the tricycle was still waiting there, Qiu Cheng asked him to take himself and Ah Chang to the train station, when he got off, Qiu Cheng gave the tricycle driver another Steamed bun.

Seeing the backs of these two foreigners walking towards the train station, the man driving the tricycle grinned, turned around, and drove quickly towards his home.

Their family is now located in that industrial area. He and his wife have to go to work during the day, and his wife does housework and takes care of the children at night. He drives this electric tricycle out to try his luck. If he is lucky, he can sometimes Earn some rations and go back.

There is no way, their family has many children, four in total, and the rations that he and his wife take back every day are not enough to fill their stomachs.

Among the four children in their family, two were born to him and his wife, and the other two were picked up.The two children who were picked up, the eldest is eight years old, and the youngest is six years old, and their household registrations are now in their home.I don't know what their parents think, after so many hard times, they lost their children at this time.

The couple of them had to support four children, and the pressure was really great, but sometimes he felt it was worth it.

What two wonderful children, and they don't need his wife to give birth to them, and they have raised them to such an age for nothing, and they will pick them up as soon as they say they pick them up. When the time comes, they may be more filial than their own children.

It's been a long time since the family has seen white noodles. I was lucky enough to earn two steamed buns tonight, so I couldn't make those four little kids so happy.