In the boundless snow and ice.

A huge circular structure stands majestically, it is so majestic, but even so, it is unusually small compared to this snowfield.

A few drooling wild dogs scurried through the snow, their tails between their legs, their stomachs shriveled, and they searched for food. It is believed that as long as it is something that can be swallowed, they will not hesitate to pounce on it and bite it.

They passed by the towering wall, stood on a snowy slope, looked into the building for a while, and found no way in, before running away.

Reinforced steel and concrete frame the building's exterior walls, and the gray-black towering walls are covered with frost.

Above the rampart is a hemispherical greenhouse canopy made of transparent panels and brackets, which covers the entire building, like an astonishingly large barrier, blocking the entire building below, reflecting the sunlight in the sky through the clouds.

From a distance, several teams of tiny figures in heavy clothes were standing on what seemed to be an infinity hood with cold masks and oxygen tanks, holding tools to clear the snow.

Underneath the canopy was a city, and through the transparent panels, you could see the houses lining it, the streets crisscrossed, and the people coming and going.

This is the greenhouse, the town that belongs to mankind in the post-disaster era, and it is also the last refuge of mankind.

The streets are not bustling, the pedestrians on the road are in a hurry, no one likes to stay outside the house for a long time, and in this era, only the house will give people a rare sense of security.

This is the No. 3 greenhouse in the west, and after the depletion of the No. 1 greenhouse in the west, it accommodates a large number of refugees, which makes life much more difficult for the people who already live here.

When Yanagihara arrived, the guards didn't look at her well, apparently taking her for a refugee who didn't know where she came from. Fortunately, perhaps out of humanitarianism, the guards at least did not drive her out, but only gave her a temporary pass and drove her into the city.

After placing her snowmobile by the door of the greenhouse, Yanagihara was going to find something to eat first, although she couldn't die, it was still quite uncomfortable to be hungry.

But she rummaged through all her pockets, and even groped her barren chest, but couldn't find anything to exchange for food.

Yes, people in this era have reverted to the most primitive barter mode, because of the collapse of the government, and the special relationship between greenhouses, this mode of trade has inadvertently become the main means of communication between people.

What Yanagihara has on his body, almost nothing. A brown coat, a long-sleeved shirt, a tank top, off-line trousers, a pair of tattered outdoor boots, an old modified Corbert revolver, two rounds of ammunition, and a pocket knife full of chips.

Except for the snowmobile, that's probably all she has.

Of course, Yanagihara is not without luxuries, and in the left pocket of her pants, there is a pack of cigarettes that have not been opened. She had picked it up in the ruins of the snowy fields, and in this day and age, cigarettes were something that only the best people could enjoy.

It was worth a lot of money, but Yanagihara wasn't going to trade it for food, she thought she could keep it and enjoy it. Compared to this mental anesthesia, one or two meals are not so important.

But it is undeniable that eating is also a major event, and an empty stomach will undoubtedly make Yanagihara even more desperate, which may make her can't help but feed her brain a bullet first.

Well, since discovering that she won't die, Yanagihara does have a lot of strange habits because of this, some of which can even be said to be a little perverted, but she basically has no self-consciousness herself.

In order to get something to eat, Yanagihara pulled out a rusty iron plate from the trash can in the greenhouse alley and stabbed a line of words on it with a knife.

"Accept the entrustment of affairs."

Then she sat on the side of the road with the iron plate.

Apparently she wanted to sell her labor to get some food, and in fact it was not uncommon for people to do similar work in various greenhouses.

They are often called hired people, who are responsible for helping people with some chores and living without a meal. Sometimes these people even help people to run errands outside the greenhouse, but this kind of work is usually not cheap.

After all, for ordinary people, if they want to go outside the greenhouse, it will cost their lives. With the exception of caravans, convoys, and exploration teams in the greenhouses, few people are willing to leave the greenhouses on their own initiative.

However, Yanagihara has a serious drawback compared to a formal employee, and that is that she does not have a reliable third-party guarantee. This makes it very likely that she will not receive any commissions for a day here. But she doesn't want much, does she, just a full meal or two.

Cheap labor, there will always be someone who likes it. Based on his past experience, Yanagihara firmly believes this.

I waited until midnight, until the street lights around Yanagihara began to flicker and gradually turned on, but no one came up to ask Yanagihara about the commission.

Yanagihara was not in a hurry, she neither recommended herself to passers-by, nor did she shout everywhere, but just sat quietly, leaning against the streetlamp, drooping her eyes, as if dozing off.

Her neck was tilted, her body staggering, and she let the dim light shine on her, illuminating a few flies and insects circling around her.

It must have been when her saliva was about to run down her shoulders when a voice finally appeared, interrupting her upcoming dream.

"That."

There was a very clean voice in front of her, why did she say it was clean, because this voice was the first word that came to mind.

"Huh!?"

Yanagihara woke up instantly, wiped his mouth, and raised his head blankly,

She looked at the road in front of her, and there was a girl standing in the light of the street lamp, her short white hair was obvious in the yellow light, and her skin was also very white, but unfortunately it was not the kind of white and tender whitening, but a sickly pale.

It was cold, maybe it was a cold, her nose was a little red, and she was wearing a gray-black sweater with a few holes in it, revealing the skin inside.

The girl was very thin, with her palms half-tucked into her sleeves. Just like her voice, this one is a clean-looking girl, even if she is dressed shabby, but it is enough to make people feel white.

The girl held an envelope in her hand, and in the evening street, where pedestrians were already sparse, the street lamps were also a little sporadic and with some glimmer in her eyes, she looked at Yanagihara and asked.

"Can I entrust you with something?"

"Of course." As a rare opening business, Yanagihara was naturally ready to take it seriously, and she subconsciously sat up straight, but accidentally hit her head on the street lamp she was still holding.

"Dang!"

"Hmm." A crisp sound was followed by a helpless snort.

Yanagihara covered his red forehead, looked at the girl as unlucky, and continued.

"Obviously, I'm just a person who does this kind of thing, and if there's anything, you can just say it."

······

"So." With the sound of the fabric rubbing, Yanagihara sat under the street lamp, looked at the girl in front of him, and raised one of his eyebrows and said.

"You want me to take you to deliver a letter?"

"Yes." The girl seemed to be a little unremarkable, and nodded with the envelope.

"Crossing an ice field on the way?"

"Yes." The girl's head lowered a little, and she didn't know if she was shy or timid.

"What do you get paid for?" Yanagihara didn't ask much about the reasons and reasons, but just asked quite realistically.

After all, this girl doesn't look like a rich client.

The girl was silent for a moment, half loud, and stretched out one of her hands, showing a bag of dried meat.

She asked timidly in a soft voice.

"Half a bag of jerky, is that okay?"

Yanagihara's gaze fell on the girl's hand, and after a while, he blinked his eyes and said.

"Do you think it's okay?"

Although her fee is very low, a trip to the ice field business, half a bag of jerky, is obviously still a little too little.

The girl pursed her lips, she understood that this was not enough.

Even if it is the cheapest commission, if you want to get out of the greenhouse, you need at least a precious metal, or enough nutrients for a person to use for a month.

These were all told to her by the regular hired people, that the girl did not cherish metals, and that she had never seen any nutrients, and that they were made from the grinding of precious fruits and plants, and that the lower classes could not reach at all.

That's why she found Yanagihara.

The girl's eyes were slightly red, she must have hesitated for a long time, she gritted her teeth, took out a small box of things from her pocket, bent down, and handed it to Yanagihara along with the envelope and jerky.

Her voice was a little softer.

"That's all I have, please take me to the No. 4 greenhouse in the west, please."

Yanagihara looked down and saw that the extra thing was a watch box with a silver-white pocket watch inside.

Yanagihara picked up the pocket watch, slid it with his hand, and fumbled with his fingers again.

Well, not silver, more like, stainless steel?

This is not a precious metal, and you can find a lot by rummaging through the big ruins in the ice courtyard.

However, Yanagihara casually opened the dial and looked at the time that was still moving on it.

When·····

Ever since she woke up again, she couldn't remember how long it had been since she had time.

Not only her, but people in this era rarely care about time. Because almost all people live with the mentality that tomorrow may be the end, in such a situation, it is natural that few people care about the current time.

Rather, people are afraid of time, afraid of knowing that time is passing, afraid of knowing that the end is coming.

They would rather forget about it so that they can live more numbly.

Yanagihara looked at the pocket watch in her hand for a moment, and then a picture in the pocket watch caught her attention, it was a little girl, and an extremely young girl.

The girl lowered her head, as if she was ready to be rejected, and even thought about it, maybe she would be scolded and humiliated, just like the previous times.

"Smack." At this time, Yanagihara closed his pocket watch.

"Greenhouse Four, isn't it?"

She asked.

The look on the girl's face froze, and then, with an indescribable sparkle in her eyes, she raised her head in disbelief.

"Did you promise me?"

"Hmm." Yanagihara replied lightly, under the street lamp, her appearance can be described as embarrassed, compared to a girl, she may be more like a person who takes care of herself.

But she still agreed to the girl's request, and glanced at the other party, and then, she was inadvertently stunned.

Because she saw something in this girl's eyes, something she hadn't seen in a long time, something that wasn't supposed to belong to this era.

She'd almost forgotten what it looked like.

But then, she saw it again.

It was like an invisible hand gently pinching her heart, which had long ceased to beat, making her dead eyes fluctuate a little.

This kind of thing seems to be called hope.