Under the scorching sun of early summer, a human-powered tricycle on the S43 highway in Chu'e Province pedaled on the viaduct.

"Boss, further on, it's time to get to 沔 (miǎn)yang."

Ding Baoli wiped the sweat from his forehead and said to Zhao Xinghua behind him.

"Isn't Mianyang in Tianfu Province?"

Zhao Xinghua thought that Ding Baoli's pronunciation was not standard, so he asked.

"It's not Mianyang City, it's Chuyang, know the allusion of "sending goose feathers for thousands of miles", that is, in the Tang Dynasty, Hui sent a messenger to send a swan to the Tang Dynasty, but the swan flew away here, fell a feather, the messenger later had to take out a piece of white silk, carefully wrapped the goose feathers, and inscribed a poem on the silk: "The swan tributes to the Tang Dynasty, and the mountain is more farther away." The treasure of Chuyang Lake is lost, and it is difficult to throw it away. On the Tang Dynasty Emperor, please sin Burma Bogao, things are light and people are righteous, and goose feathers are sent thousands of miles! ”。 After arriving in Chang'an, Tang Taizong saw this poem and listened to the messenger Mian Bogao, not only did he blame him, but felt that Mian Bogao was loyal and honest and did not disgrace his mission, so he rewarded him heavily. Since then, this sentence "thousands of miles to send goose feathers, courtesy is light and people are righteous" has become a kind of humble word for our folk courtesy exchanges and exchanges. ”

"You kid knows a lot!"

"Hehe, I grew up here when I was a kid, and I listened to my grandfather."

Zhao Xinghua left Longkou Town three days ago, but he didn't expect that this thin and tall Ding Baoli insisted on following him and didn't want to stay in the school anymore, and at the same time persuaded Wang Qizhi, the acne-ridden friend Wang Qizhi, to leave together, but he didn't expect Wang Qizhi to see that Ajie was no longer there, Cai Lili was now alone, so she had to stay and take care of her, and at the same time she didn't approve of Ding Baoli following Zhao Xinghua. But Ding Baoli, who usually looks a little obscene and bullying the soft and afraid of the hard, is desperate to go with Zhao Xinghua, so Zhao Xinghua has one more coolie "driver".

"Boss, are we going to enter Chuyang now?"

"Come on, don't you want to go back and see?"

"Of course I think, if I didn't come back with the boss, I really wouldn't have the guts."

……

"Isn't it, how did it come to this?"

The flood of the Yangtze River did not submerge here, but for some reason, the embankment of the Xianxia River, which runs through the city and is almost dry, has become full of holes.

With a history of more than 1,500 years, it is one of the birthplaces of Jingchu culture. The city was built on the Han River in the north, and the upstream was Jingling City and Oil City, both of which used to be under the jurisdiction of Jingzhou.

Many parts of the northern edge of the city have been flooded by the river, and the once wide and strong embankments are in ruins, but many houses on the riverside side have collapsed and damaged, and the houses on both sides of the Senxia River embankment that crosses the center of the city have been even more damaged.

"Why is this city so quiet?"

"Boss, is there anything wrong?"

"I don't know, but it's really like an apocalyptic scene in a movie."

"Isn't it the end of the world now?"

Ding Baoli didn't understand why Zhao Xinghua said this.

"I've been to a lot of cities, but it's really rare to see such a dilapidated place as here, and I haven't heard of zombies demolishing houses."

"What do you mean?!"

Ding Baoli stopped, turned back to Zhao Xinghua behind him.

At this time, Zhao Xinghua's right leg can walk on the ground, no longer like when he was first rescued, he needed complete crutches, after witnessing Ajie's tragic death, the energy in his body exploded inexplicably, and the place where the leg bone was broken was actually accelerated to heal, and now he can limp behind Ding Baoli, although he can't do it normally, but at least he no longer needs to jump on one leg after losing his crutches, in order to be easy to carry, the original iron cane of one meter and six long is also sawed to a length of one meter two.

Zhao Xinghua raised his iron rod and pointed to a collapsed house:

"You see, there are a lot of houses here that have been knocked down by some external force, and some doors and windows on the first floor are also very damaged, as if something is forced into it, and I can't understand what happened."

"Shall we move on, then? Why don't you get out now? ”

"No, you see it's so quiet now, there's not even a ghost on the street, and even if it's dangerous, it's supposed to be over, or those things are nocturnal like zombies. How far is your home from here? It's too late for us to take a look and leave, it's still far from dark. ”

"Turn left ahead and you'll be there."

……

Ding Baoli's home is on the north side of Taoyuan Avenue Road, in front of which is the Xianxia River that runs through the center of the city, and the community consists of 1 elevator room and 4 step houses, and his family bought it shortly after he graduated from college, when the house price was still more than 2,000 square meters. Facing the river is the only elevator building in this community, 11 floors high, but the doors and windows of the lower floors on the outward side are more seriously damaged, and the situation is much better when you turn into the community.

Ding Baoli took Zhao Xinghua to the door of Building 3 in the second row, and the access to the gate could not be opened from the outside without carrying a key due to the loss of power.

After Zhao Xinghua looked around, he sniffed with his nose again, walked to a window on the first floor, used the reinforced iron crutch in his hand to pin a stainless steel burglar railing, and then broke a piece of glass, and then smiled and motioned Ding Baoli to climb in from here.

Ding Baoli didn't expect Zhao Xinghua to make such a big move, and the sound of broken glass just now was particularly harsh in this quiet community.

"Boss, forget it, let's get out of the city early! ～”

"I'm afraid, zombies rarely come out during the day."

"But there will be one in the building, and I don't dare to make it dark inside."

"It's not for you to really go in, if the door doesn't open again, I'll break another piece of glass."

Zhao Xinghua unexpectedly accentuated his tone and said loudly.

Suddenly, a head poked out of a window on the third floor, and whispered to the two people below:

"Monkey, is that you?"

"Lei Ping?!"

……

Zhao Xinghua and Ding Baoli were taken to a house on the third floor by the man who came down upstairs to open the door, which is a large apartment of 120 square meters, the living room is wide and bright, and the sunlight shines directly through the gaps in the blackout curtains, scattered on the bamboo floor. The decoration of this home is very ordinary, and the furniture is also the popular style in the former furniture city.

After a haggard-faced woman invited him to sit down, she took out two black tea drinks from a cabinet that looked like they were about to expire and handed them over.

"Lei Ping, why didn't you husband and wife leave?"

"Where to go? This is my home, and I'm not going anywhere. ”

"Go to a safe place with the rest of the city."

"It's not safe anywhere, not to mention that we can't afford this house, in order to marry me, my parents sold the house in the countryside and paid it to the bank for a down payment, and then my wife and I worked two jobs night and night to make money desperately, and strive to pay off the loan within five years. But just after we paid off the rest of the loan at the bank, the radio on the street actually called on everyone to move to Sanfutan Farm, and we didn't go anywhere, we had to stay in this house! ”

"But the world is like this, what else do you want this house for!"

"It's something we worked so hard to buy!"

"In the future, when the zombies are cleaned up, there will be a lot of empty houses in the city, and the survivors can live wherever they want."

"This is the only one who is ours, and we don't want anyone else's."

Lei Ping's woman insisted in the same way.

"What did you survive?"

Zhao Xinghua saw that the two were resolute, so he no longer continued the topic of the house.

"It turned out that I was collecting some at a neighbor's house. Later, the sun in the sky became bigger, and the zombies would not come out during the day, so we went to a supermarket farther away and brought back some food and drinking water. There is also a large water tank on the top floor, and it is not difficult to survive in this city as long as you are careful. ”

"Oh, what's going on with the dikes and broken houses outside?"

"You'll find out in the evening, and maybe I'll be able to treat you to a big meal."