sin of lumen

—to fire, dust, and sinking temples.

Lu Ting forgot to bring an umbrella. To be precise, he never needed to carry this kind of thing by himself.However, the rain fell very fast, occupying the entire street like a torrent, and also washed away the buildings beside the street, knocking out steam on the hot battery panels and chrome-plated pipes on the wall, and then evacuated into the air, blowing the whole street full of thick smoke rolling.

The rain and the fog made the last part of the evening even darker. Only a few signboards in front could be regarded as lighting.Lu Ting raised his head, unable to see the escape route just now.

It may be an exaggeration to say that he escaped. He thought that he did not have the usual embarrassment of fugitives. Jumped off a rooftop near the "Baetrex Pastoral Music Revolving Restaurant".

Of course, he was wearing a safety rope, and the equipment provided by the police force was almost useless. As soon as he lost his mind, he went down to the 26th floor. The rope was put on his head, and he was hung up and down.

Fortunately, there is no one in the window. After the immigration plan is implemented, there will be more and more empty buildings like this. Usually, there will be no more than [-] registered residents in a block, but the upper part of the building will be used by residents of the special zone. Strict security isolation and reuse, usually opened up as entertainment venues, always designed in a bizarre way, it is easy to get lost when walking inside.

Lu Ting knew that everyone who dined at the same table would soon find out that he was missing, instead of just "going to the bathroom".Between climbing 200 meters up to return to the special zone to hide in Tibet, and going down 100 meters freely, he chose the latter.He used a laser knife to cut off the thick mild steel ropes that were in the way, and climbed down the pipe with his bare hands. When his toes finally touched the ground, his work gloves made of high-temperature-resistant materials were scorched, his leather windbreaker had two holes, and his boots The bottom rubber is also soft, try to take two steps, a little crooked.

Fortunately, the radiation protection suit worn next to his body well protected his skin.

Lu Ting sighed, because the uniform he had just acquired was also the first one he received after entering the police station, so it was somewhat commemorative.Who let those pipes with a surface temperature as high as 260 degrees Celsius transport the waste from the upper layer, and the sources of the waste are various, but after high-temperature treatment, at least one commonality can be produced-it is said to be safe and non-toxic, and it should be discharged to the lower layer.

That is the territory where Lu Ting is at this time.

He rarely reaches such a height close to the ground. There is only one time in his memory. When he was very young, his sister Lu Zhi took him out to play, let him sit in front of him, and rode a hovering motorcycle all the way down. The two were so excited yell.At that time, the street was still very lively, and the crowd scattered among the neon lights.As a result, when he reached the ground, Lu Zhi seemed to be a different person immediately. He was not even allowed to get off the car, and after floating in the air for more than ten minutes at high speed, he pulled him back to the upper floor unshakably, and he was not allowed to tell anyone.

In the rest of the time, Lu Ting also heard a lot of rumors about the lower classes, such as slums, riots, and unmanageable monsters.But it is always difficult for him to get in touch with him in person, and his work is also in the air—he is a newly recruited criminal policeman in the No. 3-17 police station of the upper Central Special Zone, although he has not even been assigned a jurisdiction for more than three months; his life is also in the air— —He has a disc-shaped aircraft with a diameter of more than 80 meters, named "Aldebaran", which is considered luxurious, and the only resident is himself, floating in circles over the special zone all day long, with a cycle of six hours.

To go home from the police station, Lu Ting only needs to remotely adjust the flight trajectory, spend a few minutes on his brightly painted gravity car, and wait silently to be sucked back home, as leisurely as a stroll after dinner.

Now he finally had a face to face with this land that was shunned by everyone around him. It was much quieter than he had imagined and remembered.

The rain had accumulated on the upper of the shoe, Lu Ting squatted down in a little confusion, picked out a piece of soil from the gap in the sewer, and wiped it on the palm of his hand.

Through the glove, he couldn't feel its texture, weight, and temperature well, and could only see its jet-black color.After watching it for more than ten seconds, it was turned into muddy water by crackling raindrops, and it flowed away silently.

The soil on the ground is also a precious thing, Lu Ting thought, because it is rare.So what is the difference between it and the artificial nutrient soil on your own ship?He couldn't speak again.

"Hey, hello, Lu Ting? Lu Ting, are you there?" Suddenly a human voice came from the headset, and it became clear after a few strings of noises, "Lu Ting! Say something even if you're here!"

"Xiao Rui..." Lu Ting came back to his senses, stabilized the frequency band, and turned down the volume again, "Do me a favor, leave me alone, and save your patient."

"You really ran away?"

"Otherwise? Have a candlelight dinner with those blind dates my dad is looking for?" Lu Ting took off his gloves, put his pockets in his pockets and walked high, kicking the water with each step, quite carelessly, "Wow, that's enough Nine of them, nine strong Alphas, all gathered on a table and looked at me pretendingly, Shu Rui, I beg you to think about that scene carefully, how do you use martial arts to recruit relatives? I get married? I'm so scared."

"The question is can you beat it?"

"Haha!" Lu Ting laughed.

"Oh, I knew you were going to run, Uncle Lu sent a lot of people to guard, and there are all exits," Shu Rui said anxiously, with a tense voice, "Damn, no way, did you really jump off? window?"

"This little thing doesn't bother me, it's like riding a slide." Lu Ting proudly said, "I even walked around it for a while, and jumped from another building, so that I wouldn't be able to catch it if I grabbed it."

"Don't tell me you didn't even wear formal clothes on a blind date."

"Seeing that group of things still need to wear formal clothes?" Lu Ting snorted, "Sexy dude! His nose is twitching like inflammation, trying to smell what I smell like."

Shu Rui paused for a few seconds, then suddenly smiled: "So you have already reached the lower floor?"

"Yeah, the scenery is very fresh, but there seems to be no one on the street." Lu Ting wiped off the dripping rain on the goggles, squinted his eyes and looked into the distance. All the split blood vessels gave him a strong feeling of being swallowed by a giant beast, which was really uncomfortable. "Is the coalition government so short of money? It also needs to save electricity. Why don't the street lights be turned on here?"

"You'd better come back quickly. When those strong Alphas who are pretending to be posing complain, Dr. Lu and I don't know how to help you out. If you give up and say a few good words, the trouble will be the least. , It’s pretty good that he promised you to be a policeman some time ago,” Shu Rui’s voice softened, “Although it’s really strange that Uncle Lu urged you to get married so early——”

"I can't go back soon," Lu Ting interrupted, he adjusted the magnification of the goggles to the third gear, and finally caught three moving light spots in the fog, flashing bright yellow, most likely alive The person attracted him to chase after him quickly, "By the way, is my sister beside you?"

"Ah? Doctor Lu is not here."

"The ground is so hot, and I didn't drive. It takes a long time to walk, and I'm very hungry now, and I have the strength to walk when I'm full."

"You don't know how to call a taxi? How about renting a motorcycle?"

"I told you, there's no one on the street at all."

"...Send me your location. It's raining too much, I think you must have entered some dangerous area anyway—"

"Goodbye, I will report back to the police station on time at night, and swipe my face to prove that I am also under surveillance today." Lu Ting pulled off the headset and left the last sentence, "At that time, you will be able to grow old with me." Dad said in a down-to-earth manner that although I, the bastard, lost contact for a while, I am not dead."

After all, he also took off the bracelet with the positioning and communication device, and with a certain sense of curiosity and excitement, he trampled it together with the headset and threw it into the garbage dump. You can see it everywhere on this street.

Immediately afterwards, Lu Ting looked forward again, the light spot was still there, but it was farther away.

He somehow felt that he should chase after him, because he really wanted to understand what kind of person would be wandering among the deserted buildings like himself in this bad weather, he felt like the guy in the documentary who was alone in the ocean Bottlenose dolphins, creatures that became extinct more than 50 years ago, finally saw a few mysterious shadows of the same kind, and of course they would be attracted.So he ran fast all the way, the air was hot and cold, and he was drenched in water all over his body, the outside was wet with rain, and the inside was wet with sweat, until the three light spots suddenly stopped moving.

Lu Ting also slammed on the brakes, and his footsteps were nailed into a small puddle.The distance was less than five meters, and he finally saw clearly that there were indeed three people, a tall man led two small ones, and the light spot was the traffic light on the back collar. This kind of gadget has become very popular in recent years and can emit light. and radio signals to prevent pedestrians from being hit by vehicles in extremely low visibility weather.

They turned around together.

Lu Ting grasped the butt of the gun reflexively.

Was it too easy to think before?One is that his stalking behavior is very suspicious, and the other is that the friendliness of the other party is also difficult to determine.

But he failed to draw the pistol.It was clearly two children, with umbrellas on their heads, and they were protected in front of their bodies. Their expressions were blocked by bulky old-fashioned gas masks, and one of them was wearing a big coat that didn't fit well.

The tall man holding the umbrella for them didn't wear anything, and he didn't even stand under the umbrella himself. His clothes were soaked and stuck to his body, and he carried something like a long knife on his shoulder.

He was very thin, with long hair, and his face was not clear under the dim blue light, but Lu Ting felt that he was looking at him.

So Lu Ting also took off his custom-made mask, and switched the headset to simultaneous interpretation mode, "Hello," he gestured, "I'm here for the first time today, and I don't know the way."

It's true, he just crushed the map system and threw it away.

The two children looked up at the tall man, but the tall man turned around indifferently without saying a word, took them back to him, and continued to walk forward.

Although he ignored people, he didn't intend to drive the "stalker" away.

Lu Ting opened his mouth but made no sound, and forgot to put on his mask, so he followed silently step by step at a distance of about five meters, not to mention kicking water, he suddenly didn't even want to step on the water.It was the first time he was ignored so much since he was a child, and he was a little dazed for a while, but he didn't feel uncomfortable, instead he apologized a little, as if his recklessness had disturbed the first three.

Not knowing what to do, Lu Ting thought about how to strike up a conversation so as not to appear so stupid, carefully counting the time and steps, and observing the street scene passing by.

About 8 minutes later, they came to a platform. The surrounding lights were much brighter, but it was still cold and blue. Only the bus beside the platform was overflowing with warm colors. Except for the tires, the entire body was made of high borate glass. It looks like a big orange-red capsule in the black rain.There are not many passengers in the car, and the countdown on the screen at the rear of the car shows that there are still 4 minutes to go.

The tall man sent the two children to the bus, then put away the umbrella and walked up the stairs by himself.Lu Ting just didn't dare to approach, and immediately ran over when he saw this, calmed down his sudden rapid breathing, and stood at the door of the bus.

"Hey!" he cried, "can I sit on this too?"

"I'm sorry, I... I'm lost, and I'm very hungry, I can't walk anymore," he added guiltily, as if he was afraid that he would not get a reply, "I have never taken a bus before, and I didn't have a bus pass. Installer. Can you help me?"

The tall man had already climbed the highest step, but stopped again, without holding the handrail, and took two steps directly down, "The light rail station for the upper floor is right in front, go straight, and when you see a self-service brothel, go to it." Turn right, don't detour into the narrow road. You need to walk for about 10 minutes."

The speech was actually in Chinese and no interpreter was needed.His voice was slightly hoarse, and his tone lacked waves, but it could be heard that he was very young.

Lu Ting looked up at the light on his back collar, and at the black shirt on his back. It was so old that it was patched at the elbows. The light actually showed the ridges and grooves. He was indeed too thin. The baggy jeans were tied tightly with a silver tactical belt, most likely to avoid slipping off, and what hung on the back was indeed a long knife, straight and narrow, with a dark gray scabbard and handle. I haven't seen it in the weapon class of the police academy, it doesn't look like a modern shape.

There are also half-length hair as black as paint, sticking strands behind the ears and neck, and those patches of cold white skin.

There were several cuts and bruises across the wrist and back of the hand.There is a lot in such a small area alone.

Lu Ting sniffed.

I don't know when it started, a smell has been lingering in his nose, like rusted iron wet by the rainstorm, but it is clearly distinguished from the rusty street he passed by, causing him to breathe heavily, instinctively trying to discern specific differences.At this time, the smell is particularly vivid and strong.

"Thank you, I understand," Lu Ting said, "Excuse me—"

He was flustered and wanted to ask what the man's name was.

But he was interrupted before he could say, "This is acid rain, you should know it." The young man on the bus turned his head, turned half of his body, raised his brows slightly, his eyes were clear, and fell straight on Lu Ting. On his face, he still stood tall.

The bus whistled twice, and there were 20 seconds left in the departure time.

He dropped his hand, and the umbrella fell into Lu Ting's arms who subconsciously reached out.

During the few seconds Lu Ting was stunned, the car door closed, and the driverless bus rushed out at a standard speed of 60 kilometers per hour, splashing water all over his body.

But he froze in place, unable to move at all, watching the orange car disappear into the fading blue light.

He finally saw the man's face clearly, 20 seconds ago.The water mark kept sliding down the sharp line of the jaw, a pair of slender eyes of different colors, and a mouth with thin lips and bright red.

Bright eyes and white teeth, radiant?Soft and sharp.For a while, Lu Ting could only find these vulgar words in his mind, which could be used to describe a person's beauty.But he knew that it was far from enough. The whole world was dark and empty just now, but that person was a flash of lightning, which was a burst of millions of volts, and Lu Ting seemed to be the only one who was struck. that person.

After waking up at this moment, he could only say that seeing the facial features of that classic beauty appear on such a pale face, propped up by a body full of scars and drenched in the rainstorm, he was very sad.

Similarly, he regretted taking off the mask, because he seemed to be fascinated by the rain, and he couldn't tell what color those eyes were. When he looked at himself, the light refracted in the pupils to form a fleeting color spectrum.It also made him feel sad.

There is also the tightly buttoned neckline of the young man, and the white neck that is not covered even so, and the black barcode printed in a small half circle from the Adam's apple to the side of the neck...

This means that he is a descendant of artificial humans.

Lu Ting only saw that the end number of the code was M83.

Then why did he appear here?Although there are no specific coordinates, one thing is certain, the lower level of the central special zone is the settlement area of ​​natural persons.

More than 20 years ago, after the implementation of the new household registration system, in this capital, the artificial human population was fixed on the other side of the river.

Lu Ting's mind suddenly became confused, he lowered his head, grasped the crude folding black umbrella, and did not open it in a hurry.

The rain curtain pressed on his shoulders, still so heavy and dense, like solid particles, rolled into his neckline, but was blocked by the radiation protection suit, making it difficult to touch the skin.

Is this acid rain?The thing that ruined so much land.Of course Lu Ting knows the dangers of acid rain, but this is the first time he has been exposed to real rain in person. Usually, there will always be someone following him closely to help him hold the umbrella and walk the nearest road as fast as possible. Stuffed into various buildings and spaceships, it doesn't matter if it gets wet at all, as if he is the flowers, plants, vegetables and fruits he raises, and can only survive indoors.Suddenly remembered the plain tone of the young man just now, "You should know." Dazed, Lu Ting raised his hand and touched his cheek. The skin was still smooth, as if it had not been corroded, and he stretched out his inexplicably stiff tongue to lick the corner of his lips. ——

There is no strange smell, only the rusty iron smell still lingers, as if it was eaten into his lips and swallowed into his stomach along the rainwater, confusing his sense of taste.Taking a long, deep breath, the stench of oxidized steel was so strong that he felt like he had bitten his lip.

No, it's really been bitten through.

Lu Ting squatted down slowly, put the bridge of his nose and bloody lips on the umbrella bone, closed his eyes and sniffed deeply.

The hot wind and hot mist were still steaming and churning all over his body, and he was suddenly afraid that the smell would disappear.

Fortunately not.When he shivered slightly, hid himself under the umbrella, and pressed every trace of his breath to the handle of the umbrella, the smell became even stronger. The part that was often held tightly was also held by the young man numbered M83 just now. hand.

The blood on the tip of the tongue is sweet.Maybe rust iron too.