There was a faint musty smell in the air and a bit of stuffiness, but after a few minutes, my nose was getting used to it. Today's temperature is colder than ever, and a small heating fire can be seen at a distance. The fire was extinguished, and I thought that in the evening, there would be a lot of people sitting around talking about the day's anecdotes or reminiscing about the good old days. There is no tarpaulin over the area where the fire is located, presumably to prevent the tarpaulin from being ignited and causing a fire. The entire cargo area can only look up to the sky when you stand in a slightly open area like this; It's just that there's no need to do it today......

From time to time, some residents pass by us, looking at us, strange outsiders, with more wariness than curiosity in their eyes. While I could understand why they did this, I couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed and uneasy under this alternative gaze. Thankfully, we finally got to where we were staying, and I was able to escape these uncomfortable eyes for a while.

It seems that Wei Jiahui should take good care of us, and even arranged a 'board suite' for us, the girls are more excited, and we boys seem to be indifferent. To be honest, even if I find a safe street corner, I can definitely fall asleep in my tired state, whether it is a board house or a tent.

The man from Jiang Shang handed over the key to the house to Zhang Xizheng, and at the same time said, "Considering that there are more of you, the boss will arrange for you to live in this room temporarily." Don't worry, this prefabricated house has just been built, and the things in it are relatively clean, but this room can only accommodate seven or eight people at most, and a few of you will have to live in tents. ”

"Du Yuheng went to sleep in the tent!" Chen Mo opened his mouth and came, innocent I don't even have the right to object.

"Why? I'm most tired these days, okay? I protested pitifully loudly, and the people around me were just watching the play, Long Hao and Wei Liqin stood aside and smirked, trying to punch these two bastards.

"That must be a good place for us girls to live, and a sloppy ghost like you must live in a tent!" Liang Minxuan, who was out of one nostril with Chen Mo, still shouted her crooked reasoning confidently.

How do I answer this? In desperation, I had to wait for a sensible person to come out and say something fair. After all, we are all just a group of young people who don't give face to each other, and the adults who have watched the show laugh and laugh, and they will finally come forward to make a round when they know the reason.

The first to speak was naturally our leader, Zhang Xizheng walked up to me, patted my drooping shoulder and smiled: "Okay, okay, I'll go sleep in the tent with Uncle Zhong, Yuheng has worked hard these days, it's better to have a good rest." ”

Wow! The first time I heard Zhang Xizheng help me speak, I have to say that I was really a little uncomfortable.

"Forget it. Aunt Liang still has to take care of Lu Manxuan, and I don't bother to squeeze with Chen Mo. "The Lu Manxuan I am talking about is the little girl that Chen Mo and I rescued with medicine a while ago, and after Aunt Liang's care in the past few days, her body has recovered a lot. As for Aunt Liang, she is the woman who has been taking care of Lu Manxuan and the dead Han Gong before, her name is Liang Yan, she is an aunt in the university cafeteria, and she was taken in by Zhang Xizheng and his party after being separated from her husband.

"Yu Heng and I also use Uncle Zhong and Professor to sleep in tents, and the rest of you will rest here." In the end, it was Huang Weizheng who made a final decision, we had no opinion, and the girls didn't make any more trouble, and this nonsensical episode was settled.

And just like that, we came to a tent area that was a little out of the way. Huang Weizheng and I casually chose a dirty four-corner tent, and after saying goodbye to the Jiangshang friends who led the way, we threw our luggage and packages into the tent, and got into it with the others. I don't know how Uncle Zhong's tent is, anyway, we are quite comfortable. Wei Jiahui asked people to put some necessities in the tent, two black sleeping bags and an emergency camping lamp can be said to be standard in this "guest room". The moisture-proof mat on the floor had been torn off, but the blanket on top of it was soft.

I threw my backpack aside and lay down on my sleeping bag without saying a word, stretching out with all my strength, clearly audible the overwhelming click of every joint in my body. Not satisfied, I stretched my limbs hard and collapsed on my sleeping bag like a puddle of mud. Huang Weizheng, who had just taken care of his package, turned around and saw that I had put out a big character, kicked away my leg in front of him in disgust, found a place to sit down, and took out a map of Nanning to study it carefully.

"Won't you lie down and rest?" I wondered.

"You sleep like this, where do I sleep?"

Faced with Huang Weizheng's helpless question, I embarrassedly put away my domineering posture and said with a smile: "Na, this is always okay, right?" ”

"Hmm." Huang Weizheng didn't raise his head, but just answered me perfunctorily.

I thought about it and said without words: "We're really like an outing now, I really had some delusions just now." ”

"It's okay, just don't get carried away again."

"What got carried away? Haven't I been serious all the time? ”

"Yes, keep it up."

Sometimes Huang Weizheng's deliberate and careless ridicule can just right to shut me up. Knowing that I was annoying, I had to turn around and sleep on my own. As soon as I closed my eyes, drowsiness was about to capture me, I heard a commotion and someone opened the zipper of the tent.

"Dada! What are you two doing? Liang Minxuan's provocative ridicule suddenly blew my sleepiness out of the clouds.

"What are you doing!" I turned around angrily and scolded.

But Liang Minxuan didn't care about my yelling at all, and said to herself: "It's a pity, I thought you two would do something." ”

"Sick!" I cursed again, only to hear the laughter of a few other people outside the tent.

Compared to my violent jump, Huang Weizheng seemed quite ordinary, he put away the map and asked, "Something?" ”

Hearing Huang Weizheng's question, Chen Mo squeezed Liang Minxuan away like a prize-winning answer, and smiled excitedly: "We plan to go to the commercial area of the ship to have a look, do you want to come together?" ”

"No, I'm going to sleep......" Actually, having said that, I still have some desire to see the novelty of this wandering fleet. I stole a glance at Huang Weizheng, and he shrugged his shoulders and said that it didn't matter, so I changed my words and said, "...... But Liang Minxuan, you woke me up just now, so I'd better go with you to have a look. ”

My friends knew that I was hard-mouthed, and they didn't tease me anymore. Outside the tent, Chen Mo, Liang Minxuan, Wei Hong, Zhang Wenyu, Long Hao, Wei Liqin and even Zhang Xiaoying planned to go shopping; Are these people traveling in the right way? I still had my rifle with me to be on the safe side, although everyone else said it wasn't necessary.

When the sand mining ship passed through the residential area and came to the cargo ship where we had boarded the ship before, I suddenly noticed a warm feeling on my face, and when I looked up, the midday sun was gradually clearing, and the sky was clear. The mist on the river dissipated under the evaporation of the sun, and the cool river breeze mixed with the breath of human beings swept through my clothes, cool and sad but hopeful.

Like a longing for light in the dark, I reveled in this brief moment of sunlight, and only after repeated shouts from my friends did I return to reality and board the corridor connecting the cargo ship and the pleasure ship with them. As soon as I boarded the boat, I was greeted by the rich aroma of mushroom porridge, and I couldn't believe that I could smell the cooking again after more than a lapse, and my sleeping taste buds woke up, and I made a voice of anticipation urging me to turn this illusory delicacy into reality.

"Where does it smell so good!" Chen Mo, who usually never taboos his mouth, was the first to shout, "Let's go and have a look!" ”

A snack shop for hot porridge was not far from us, and a few re-welded tables and chairs were fixed in front of a simple stall, and a good-faced grandmother greeted us hungry young people with squinting eyes and grins. Not long after everyone found a good place to sit down, Grandma served a bowl of steaming mushroom porridge. This milky white rice porridge is mixed with many tiny diced mushrooms, and most importantly, there is minced meat in it! Incredible! It's fresh minced meat! Grandma told us that there was a pigsty in one of the sand mining boats at the front of the fleet, and not only that, but there were also some poultry in captivity; In addition, the two sand mining boats were planted with potatoes and tomatoes and some fruits and vegetables that could easily survive, and the fishing boats at the rear of the fleet often went out to fish. This is the main source of food for the people of Jiangshang.

It was only after a satisfying meal that we realized an important problem - we had no money on us! Fortunately, Grandma has a good heart and told us that there is a 'bank' nearby. The so-called 'bank' is the counter for the exchange of bullet and fish tickets, located in the kiosk of the past on the cruise ship. The enclosed counter is indeed an ideal location for currency exchange, and the trading window is sealed with a piece of glass that leaves only a gap at the bottom of the window sill for exchange, and not only that, but the window is also welded with an anti-theft net, which is really thoughtful. There is a small blackboard on the windowsill, which reads: Today's exchange rate: 1 standard bullet is equal to 5 fish tickets, and 1 rifle bullet is equal to 7 fish tickets. It was only now that Huang Weizheng had to admit that it was the right choice for me to carry a rifle. We exchanged ten rifle bullets for fifty and twenty, for a total of seventy fish tickets.

It is estimated that it is rare for a young man of our age to exchange so many rifle bullets for fish tickets in one breath, and the big man at the counter carefully looked at the bullets we handed over, and only after confirming that they were correct did he give us the exchanged fish tickets with confidence. But it turns out that the seventy-dollar fish ticket is not worth as much as expected. A bowl of two-yuan mushroom porridge per person cost me eighteen yuan in a blink of an eye; It's heart-wrenching to think about.

After leaving the porridge shop, we continued to weave through the crowded commercial area. I don't know how many people there are on the Wanderer, but walking in the boat full of small shops really makes me feel a little difficult to walk, and the bustling people are busy with their own business. Everyone here was dressed a little bit downwardly, but there was not the slightest uneasiness on their faces, and I felt as if they had forgotten how terrible the perilous world outside the ship was. Aside from that, the goods on the Wanderer are really complete, and the girls are laughing and playing with the endless gadgets, and they have to rely on the dissatisfaction of the store to stop.

butchers, pharmacies, clothing stores, grocery stores, ...... Shops are full of easy-to-use yet eye-catching signs. People dressed in different clothes walked back and forth, they had become accustomed to the deplorable and regressive post-apocalyptic society, and the rest of their lives were a gift from heaven to them, so much so that they forgot the prosperity of the world that once was. But I have to say how exciting it is to see these familiar things in today's post-apocalyptic world. Cute mugs, little girls' jewelry, soda drinks that we once knew the brand, and many other things that we used to take for granted are precious now. Unlike the girls, we boys are more pragmatic, and the shops that sell weapons and ammunition are the ones we focus on.

After walking around the shops that were mostly of no real use to us, we went to a weapons shop on the second floor of the cruise ship. The weapons shop is small in size, except for a small slot separated by composite panels, like a newsstand, with a worn wooden board as the main shelf, with format knives, and a few firearms hanging on the walls of the store, all but an old eight-bar rifle, which are some homemade earthen guns.

The shopkeeper wears a pair of Sven's gold-rimmed glasses, and doesn't look like a boss selling murder weapons at all. When he saw the Type 95 rifle on my back, he looked at me with bright eyes and begged me to give him a touch of the weapon used by the regular army. According to him, so far, people mostly use cold weapons such as knives to defend themselves, and the use of firearms is more to kill, like my military rifle is extremely rare, at least seven or eight hundred fish tickets can be bought, after all, regular military weapons are very rare now, and the people who hold such weapons are either past soldiers or murderers who kill without blinking; It's no wonder that when I was shopping just now, passers-by kept a certain distance from me and secretly cast fearful glances.

After listening to the boss's admiring explanation, we looked at each other, and we all endured the smug mood and did not laugh. Because in addition to the rifle in my hand, we also have Huang Weizheng's Bonelli shotgun, Wei Liqin's Type 92 police pistol, and the later seized Type 85 submachine gun and a homemade sniper rifle, not counting our other cold weapons, it should be said that our team is full of combat effectiveness, and it is not a problem to rob banks in the past. More than we have so many guns, we lack more bullets, and having guns or not is an embarrassing and deadly problem.

"If you want to defend yourself with this weapon, you children must have suffered a lot outside, right? It's okay! How about I give you a 20% discount on everything I have today? The boss gave me back the gun in admiration and said, "You know, the most valuable thing now besides medicine is the gun, you can make a lot of money." ”

Hearing what the boss said, I suddenly realized: "That's right! We have a lot of medicines, so why not exchange some medicines that aren't very necessary for these weapons to be restocked? ”

"Huh? It's a great idea! Huang Weizheng patted me on the shoulder and nodded and smiled, "It seems that you are still a bit economically minded." ”

"Don't talk about the last half of the sentence, will you die?" I shook my shoulders and deliberately changed the subject to ask the other friends for their opinions, and there were no objections, so we decided to leave the weapons shop for a while and talk to the grown-ups.

Although he was a little reluctant, Zhang Xizheng agreed that we should take the remaining half of the medicine to several pharmacies in the wandering number to buy it, so as to not only keep as low a profile as possible, but also ensure the price. The owner of the weapons shop is right, our medicine is indeed quite valuable. A box of common cold medicine can be exchanged for two rifle bullets, and antibiotic medicine can be exchanged for four or five rifle bullets. In this way, we can exchange at least two boxes of rifle bullets for magazines, and other types of bullets can be replenished; Except for Huang Weizheng's shotgun, due to the rarity of this kind of bullet, it can only barely replenish thirty rounds, which is already all the shotgun bullets in the weapon store. The boss said that he really didn't expect anyone to buy shotgun bullets, and he was lucky to be able to sell them out in one go.

"You kids are buying so much ammunition, you can't be hijacking ships, are you?" Seeing that we skillfully lit the ammunition one by one, and then packed these ammunition secretly, the boss joked humorously, "It will be good to surround my life then." ”

"Uncle, you're really good at laughing." Chen Mo stuck out his tongue and said, "The people of Jiangshang are so good to us, we can't be grateful." ”

"Nonsense, I saved Wei Jiahui's sister, okay? Can it be bad for us? I said coldly as I counted the bullets.

As soon as the words fell, I was slapped mercilessly by Chen Mo. "I know that you Du Yuheng is amazing, okay? Wei Hong didn't say anything, what are you showing off? ”

"Yu Heng has really helped a lot, otherwise I wouldn't be alive now."

As soon as Wei Hong opened his mouth, not only Chen Mo, but all of us were speechless. I didn't expect that I, a sworn enemy who used to fight each other, would speak for me, and I was so loyal, I really didn't know each other.

The shopkeeper, who didn't understand the situation, broke our silence and asked curiously, "Hey, you just said that you saved Miss Liao Shuzhen, is it true?" ”

"Isn't that right? Otherwise, where did the wound on my face come from? I said, half-ostentatiously, half-complaining, pointing to the scar on my left cheek.

"I was beaten by Wei Hong." Liang Minxuan, who does not accumulate virtue, deserves it quickly, and Wei Hong snickered embarrassedly, not only him, but all of us are happy because of this, which can be regarded as an official celebration that I can reconcile with Wei Hong.

After selling out the ammunition and supplies, we still had some fish tickets left, and the girls immediately urged us to buy other things that seemed unnecessary to me. They also found a razor in a grocery store, and there happened to be a mirror in the store, so all of our boys were forced to shave their beards. It's not a bad thing in itself, it's just that shaving without foam lubrication, even with water, is quite shaving. However, after shaving, we are all in a lot more energetic, at least the appearance is more suitable for our actual age.

After visiting the grocery store, we walked into another clothing store. In fact, at this time, it is simply impossible to buy any beautiful clothes in a clothing store; Except for thick cotton clothes and torn jackets, all you see here are some old clothes that are not up to size. But the girls are very picky, as if they used to visit all kinds of fashion stores, and their laughter can be heard in the whole business district.

Dusk has come, and under the orange sunset, we have left the lively cruise ship with the usual shadows, like young boys and girls returning from vacation, talking about the interesting things that happened during the holiday, while carrying the trophies they purchased, and not forgetting to tease their companions. In fact, it was just a few hours, but it was like getting a perfect vacation, and the future events and unknown challenges were temporarily forgotten by us. In addition, I heard that there is a bathhouse in the residential area and hot water is also available, so be sure to enjoy it after dinner!