Little Mushroom

It was not until a long time later that the woman by the wall stopped her sobbing.Her eyes were red and her hair was disheveled. She leaned against the wall and looked at the distant sky without saying a word, like a drop of water on a leaf, which was about to shatter when touched.

An Zhe asked cautiously, "Aren't you leaving?"

She shook her head, her voice hoarse: "What does that dead one have to do with you?"

It took An Zhe a long time to find the right words in his memory: "My...friend. He saved me."

"My man saved me too." After she finished speaking, her head drooped deeply, her shoulders and back trembled, and she occasionally made a cry-like sound, and never spoke again.

An Zhe held the ID card that belonged to Vance tightly in his hand, and there was a dull feeling coming from his heart—the human heart. When he was a pure mushroom, he never had such a feeling. feeling.

When this feeling finally dissipated a little, he finally found the strength, followed the direction of the distant crowd, raised his legs and walked out of the passage.

At the end of the city gate passage is a row of mechanical gates, and An Zhe chose the leftmost one.When he walked over, a soft mechanical female voice sounded: "Please show your ID card and look at the camera."

An Zhe put the ID card belonging to Anze on the white light on the platform at the right end of the gate, and then raised his eyes to look at the black camera ahead.

"ID3261170514, name: Anze. Birthplace: District 6 of the Outer City, time away from the city: 27 days."

The camera made a slight click, and the white light turned green.

"Face recognition passed, welcome home."

With a ding, the gate was raised, and An Zhe walked out.

The glare of the morning sun made him squint his eyes, and it took 30 seconds for him to recover. After the blurry world became clear, a huge gray city appeared before his eyes.

Surrounding him is a large open area, with the words "Buffer Zone" written on the ground in dazzling green paint. Looking forward, human creations are rising from the ground, and the tall concrete buildings are overwhelming, taller than An Zhe has ever seen. All plants are huge, as if they are about to fall over at any time.They stood there, crowded and stacked, blocking his view.He looked up, half of the orange-red sun was hidden behind the tallest building, and the other half was exposed, like a drop of diluted blood, which would drip down the wall in the next moment.

An Zhe turned his head back, and the people who came out of the city gate with him were scattered by the mechanical gate. After going out, they spontaneously gathered together and headed in the same direction. An Zhe followed them forward and turned a corner after a few hundred steps. , There are four words "Rail Transit" written on the sign, a train is parked on the track, and the body reads: Entrance - District 1 - Supply Station No. 3 - District 5 - District 8 - City Office - Exit.

He followed the flow of people into the car and sat down in a corner in the slightly empty compartment. In the front seat were two muscular men, talking in a low voice.

"Come back from Basin No. 3? You risked your life this time."

"Six people died."

"It's okay, have you paid back?"

"The military is still approving it. I don't think I will have to go to the wild again in my next life."

"Huh."

"We entered a school in the abandoned city of No. 411. It was full of mutated plants, and no one dared to enter." The man smiled: "We went in and pried three hard drives in the library reference room, which are priceless treasures. Just look How much is the value stored in it?"

An Zhe listened quietly, he didn't quite understand, but he knew that the man in front of him was very happy, so he was also a little happy.

Knowing that happy people often don't mind helping others, he called out, "Sir."

The man didn't turn his head back, and said, "What's wrong?"

"How to get to District 6?"

"Transfer from the supply station to train No. 2."

"Thank you."

Five minutes later, the train started, and a mechanical voice announced the name of the platform. An Zhe was very unfamiliar with everything. After several twists and turns and asking for directions, he finally got on the No. 5 train at the supply station, got off the train correctly, and came to District 2 .

Anze's ID number is 3261170514. This string of numbers is not only a proof of human identity, but also represents his address. It is in Building 6, District 117, Outer City, house number 0514.

However, not long after getting off the car, when he was trying to find someone to ask for directions, he was suddenly stopped by a young boy: "Hello, friend. Welcome to get off the car, would you mind getting to know us?"

Before An Zhe had time to speak, a white sheet of paper was stuffed into his hand, with a few big blood red characters written on it: oppose the dictatorship of the judge.

He didn't know why, but he didn't ask further, he just asked, "Do you know how to get to Building 117?"

The boy said: "You don't mind walking with us?"

"……do not mind."

"Then we are comrades-in-arms." The boy raised the white paper in his hand, on which were also written a few big red characters: Abolish the "Judge Act".

They were not the only ones holding the paper. Soon, An Zhe was pulled into a group of people. There were about forty of them, all with young faces, each holding a similar blank paper, Or two people hold a long banner together, and the sentences on the paper and the banner are roughly the same.

"We voluntarily cover the cost of genetic testing."

"Judger of human sinners."

"Disband the Inquisition and avenge the innocent."

At the same time, the crowd was slowly moving forward, so An Zhe could only move with it.

The roads of the city are narrow, the sun shines on the buildings, and the buildings cast rolling shadows on the ground.Apart from them on the road, there were also many adults walking with their heads down. They occasionally looked up to this side, but quickly looked away.

An Zhe: "What are we doing?"

"Walk quietly," the boy said. "We'll march until the day the Inquisition is dismissed."

An Zhe: "...Oh."

After walking for about half an hour, he asked the boy next to him again: "Where is Building 117?"

"Ahead, we're almost there."

Another hour and a half later, An Zhe asked again: "Where is Building 117?"

"I'm sorry!" The boy scratched his head and said, "I forgot about you, we passed by, behind."

As he said that, he turned and pointed to a place: "That direction, not far away, the building number is written on the side, you can see it."

An Zhe: "Thank you."

"You're welcome."

An Zhe handed the paper to the boy: "This is for you."

"No need!" The boy stuffed the paper back into his arms, and said, "Remember to come back next week! Let's meet at Building No. 1!"

So An Zhe could only stack the bloody "opposition to the judge's dictatorship" and the genetic report that the judge himself stuffed into him, hugged him in his arms, left this group of strange young humans, and headed towards the accused. direction.

——While walking, he felt that the surrounding environment gradually became familiar, and the memories that originally belonged to Anze were awakened in his mind. He followed his intuition and turned a few corners, and came to the foot of the building marked "117".It is a rectangular building, 10 stories high, but very wide.He entered unit 0, climbed the deep and steep stairs to the fifth floor, entered a dim corridor, and found room 11.

There was a white seal on the door. An Zhe gently tore it open, revealing the sensing area underneath. He stuck the ID card on it, the door lock popped open, and he walked in.

It's a very small room.It was smaller than the cave he used to live in, but it was much more spacious and bright than the lounge in the armored vehicle.Against the wall is a wooden desk with a dozen old books stacked on top of it, and stacks of paper and notebooks on the other side.The desk is facing a single bed, there is a cabinet beside the bed, there are water glasses, mirrors and some sundries, and a wardrobe that is more than one person tall is against the end of the bed.

The window was on the other side of the bed, the gray curtains were half open, the sunlight came in and shone on the quilt of the same color, a dry aroma reminded him of Anze's smell.

He walked to the bed and reached out to take down the palm-sized mirror, his face was reflected in the mirror.

He looks like Anze, with soft black hair and eyes of the same color. He is similar in many places, but there are some details that are not the same.Moreover, he does not have the gentle and calm expression of Anze.

At that time, Anze said to him: "I seem to have a younger brother. Let me give you a name, little mushroom."

"Is there anything that impresses you, little mushroom?"

There are only two things that are profound in his limited memory, one is the lost spore, and the other happened when he was very young—probably when he was only as long as a human pinky finger.

During the rainy season when mushrooms grew, he was hit by slanted raindrops on the slender stipe and broke off in the middle.

Then, like any wounded creature, it struggles to grow back, to live.

Later, he gradually had some vague consciousness, and he healed.

Since then, he seems to be different from his own kind. He can control his own hyphae, can flow between the jungle and the wilderness, and can sense the sounds and movements outside. He is a free mushroom.

"Little poor." At that time, Anze stroked his hair: "Does it hurt when you break it?"

"forgotten."

Anze said, then I will call you Anzhe.

He said, good.

Thinking of this, An Zhe smiled at the mirror.

When the person in the mirror laughed, he seemed to see An Ze's shadow again.

"Thank you." He said to the mirror.

After putting down the mirror, An Zhe sat at the desk.

What's next?

After thinking about it, An Zhe stretched out his left hand and stared at his fingertips under the light.

The snow-white hypha quietly spread outward from the fingertips, and then condensed into a solid body. He picked up the dagger and cut off a thin piece.

Then he picked it up with his right hand, put it to his mouth, pushed it in gently, and closed it with his teeth—he decided to investigate the fact that he was poisonous.

Soft, sweet, savory in one flavor - that's the first impression.

In the next second, the whole world in front of his eyes shook.