Monday morning in the last week of May.

There is no sunlight in Las Vegas, and there is a chilling wind in the air, like a banshee that burrows into the skin.

The two cars drove all the way out of Las Vegas and onto the wide, flat interstate highway between Arizona and Nevada.

The road begins to stretch downwards and becomes a gentle slope.

Dean poked his head out of the window, and in the distance, a blue lake came into view.

There is no sun today, but the water is still stunningly beautiful, like a jewel lying between the cliffs, and the calm surface of the lake is filled with a blue glow.

Dean squinted his eyes and looked at Caroline beside her,

"What exactly is the process of Memorial Day today?"

"It's very simple, go to the shore of Lake Mead, chat and bask in the sun, oh no, there is no sun today, you can only enjoy the barbecue party at noon, wait until three o'clock in the afternoon, punctually mourn for the deceased soldiers and relatives for five minutes, and then disband and go home, everyone continues to enjoy the two-day holiday on Tuesday and Wednesday."

Caroline shook her ponytail and smiled sweetly,

"No marches, no gun salutes? Take the opportunity to ask a few veterans to give speeches, reminisce about the glory of the past, and promote American patriotism? ”

"You didn't notice? These projects were already done last Friday. Caroline clinged to his arm and exhaled mischievously into his ear.

Dean smiled helplessly.

Don't look at this rock girl who is open on the surface, in fact she is a loach that does not slip on her hands, and she slides away when she catches it, but Dean doesn't mind, and only uses it as an after-training spice.

There was a commotion on the other side of the couch.

"Crush me, dear... Why don't you drive your Dodge over! ”

Two latecomers, Noah's girlfriend, Marie and Liam's girlfriend, sit on the "human couch" and complain.

"Haha, isn't it more convenient to squeeze and exchange feelings in depth?" Liam scratched his girlfriend's waist and kissed her long hair behind the back.

……

After running for more than half an hour, the time came to ten o'clock in the morning.

The crowd arrived at their destination.

Chevrolet and Ford stopped, and Dean opened the door.

"Have you been here?"

Caroline followed him out of the car, where there were more than two dozen cars parked by the lake, and a bus used to pick up students.

School teachers, students, and other strangers are spreading out picnic cloths and building grills in a hot atmosphere.

"I haven't left Las Vegas before."

Dean said,

"Then you're here for the right time, you haven't been to Lake Mead, how can you be considered a Vegasian?"

Caroline patted him on the chest.

Dean slowly walked to the beach on the shore, took a handful of cold lake water, and looked up at the loess, sand, cliffs and cliffs full of rocks on all sides, and rented pleasure boats on the beach in the distance.

Surrounded by a desert that stretches as far as the eye can see, in the midst of this boring yellow sand, there is such a beautiful artificial lake.

The water is clear, clear and clear, and calm without a ripple.

You can also fish, dive, and boat.

Lake Mead is like a sapphire dotted in a golden sandbox, an illusionary mirage.

Dean grinned and asked,

"Hosting a barbecue party in such a scenic place doesn't hurt the environment? Is it allowed by the government? ”

"I've made a special request, as long as I clean up all the garbage after the party, it's fine."

Caroline crouched beside him and threw a handful of water at him with a smile.

Dean reached in front of his shoulder bag.

"What is it in the bag that makes you so interested? When you rested last night, you seemed to have it with you. ”

Caroline's eyes flashed with curiosity.

"A couple of novels to pass the time."

Dean smiled,

Caroline was about to continue asking, but a voice interrupted her.

"Look, what a quiet sleeping beauty."

Carty and Rust combo crabs came over and put down the vegetable bucket as arrogantly, looking at the lake,

"Legend has it that this 'beauty' has a hidden murderous intention. One of the favorite sports of Las Vegas casino thugs and gangsters is to sink bodies covered in stones and chains to the bottom of Lake Mead to destroy their bodies, which has been around for more than 40 years, and if you sink ten people a year, you ......"

"Isn't Lake Mead the equivalent of a mass grave? Let's have a barbecue party by the lake," said Katy, suddenly, "isn't it just 'grave jumping'?" ”

"There's worse." Rust clenched an onion tightly and his face turned blue, "Geography teacher Shia said that Lake Mead provides drinking water to millions of people in California, Nevawa, Arizona and other states, and guess where the drinking water in Las Vegas, a desert oasis, comes from?" ”

Dean frowned, and the initial dreaminess faded.

Britney and Caroline, who were eavesdropping with their ears pricked up, turned pale.

We've been drinking corpse water?

"Shut up, idiot! After so many years, I haven't seen you drink water, come and help! Liam, who was slicing a carrot with a knife, made an assassination gesture, "If you say anything like this, believe it or not, I'll sink the three of you first." ”

……

Dean and his party began to set up the grill, spread charcoal, set up an iron pot, cut onions, diced carrots, corn nuggets, chopped parsley and other spices, and Marry, wearing an apron, stood in front of the grill to prepare the barbecue broth, flip the steak, and control the heat.

Next to the grills, the meat steaks are bubbling with oil, the blackened corn kernels are crackling and exploding, and the aroma rises with the smoke and wafts into the gloomy sky.

Like a row of tentacles reaching out into the dark clouds.

It was a new experience for Dean.

In his previous life, he rarely participated in barbecues in the wild.

And he is a fake Celestial Empire, with average cooking skills, and he can also get started.

……

The barbecue party was orderly, and in order to avoid outside interference, Dean deliberately selected the most remote corner of the entire barbecue camp.

But it turned out that he underestimated the influence and popularity of the band Good Morning.

In just half an hour, several waves of different people took the initiative to lean over to say hello.

The black man with the exploding head, wearing a floral shirt and ripped jeans, greeted the ghost weather in a rhythmic rap tone, and then bumped fists with the band members one by one.

Leather jackets, leather pants, eyeshadow, and a pair of non-mainstream people, affectionately put their arms around the shoulders of the three Liam and whispered, and then took some corn, grilled sausages, and juice along the way.

A bespectacled, sven nerd, with a small notebook, frantically asking for the band's autograph, but his eyes kept peeking at Caroline, who had fluttering blond hair, a snow-white complexion, and a hot body.

……

But without exception, when these eyes fell on Dean and Rust in the Good Morning team, they would show undisguised surprise.

How does an Asian guy and a little transparent who likes to play herring get mixed up with the school's most popular rock band?

"Open your mouth..."

Caroline thoughtfully placed a grilled sausage to the contemplative Dean's mouth, the shallot-like fingertips covered in grease and looking very tempting.

Dean was not pretentious either, and took a hard bite.

Caroline smiled with satisfaction, her big eyes glittering. The words spoken are even more like heaven.

"Don't be like those idiots, they don't understand anything, and they will be mediocre for the rest of their lives, and they can't even afford a home in Las Vegas. You're different, Dean, you can write good songs, you're a genius, you're destined to shine in the music world! ”

Dean glanced at the girl.

Although he knows that the other party has ulterior motives to please him, he still has a trace of usefulness in his heart.

"Caroline?"

"Huh?"

"You're going to be a big singer in the future."

The girl's eyes were bent into crescents,

"Don't make promises easily, if you can't keep it, I'll settle accounts with you."

……

A group of people feasted around the wooden square table next to the grill.

Dean did as he remembered.

Bacon, steak, lettuce, fried onion rings, pickled cucumbers, topped with melted hot cheese and sprinkled with spices between each layer.

Sandwiched between two slices of bread layer after layer.

A steaming mille-feuille fort is freshly baked!

Dean licked his lips and took a bite.

Not......

The rich juice bursts in the mouth, and the rich ingredients fill the cheeks.

The satisfaction is overwhelming!

……

"I still vividly remember the day Noah applied to join the band a few years ago, it scared me away."

Liam took a big bite of the pistol chicken leg and began to reminisce about the past,

"Yellow-colored coat and dusty pants, thin, hunchbacked, like a country granny, yes, you're from a farm in rural Arizona!"

"Phew! Grandma is also better than you, a GAY-angry! "Noah straightened the cockscomb's head that was blown by the wind,

"Cynthia, your boyfriend was both male and female when he was in junior high school, and he had a boyfriend!"

"What nonsense are you talking about? Believe it or not, I'll tear your mouth apart! ”

"Hear that if you don't have everyone, the man will say, 'Tear your mouth'?"

"Forget it, don't worry about mentally handicapped children, say something exciting, the core of our band, Caroline's measurements, my girlfriend secretly told me, are you interested?"

"How do you want to die?" Caroline raised her fork with a cold look in her eyes,

Dean enjoyed the food and the chatter in his ear, opened his belly and ate the amount of food he had eaten the day before.

After about an hour, everyone was full of food and drink, and their bodies were warm, because they began to digest food, and their brains were ischemic, and their heads were dizzy.

Dean glanced at the girl next to her, Caroline's face turned red, and she secretly pulled the hem of her vest down to cover her slightly bulging belly.

……

Such a beautiful moment.

Squeak –

Not far away, there was a sudden screeching braking of the scenery.

A pair of eyes in the lakeside campground looked over.

"Who, how do you park your car?"

An M151 jeep stopped horizontally on the slope between the Lake District and the highway, like a black riot wall, blocking the way out.

The car door opened, like the wings of a giant black bat, and three people, one on the left and one on the right, got out of the car.

They were all wrapped in a tight army-green coat, with a full-cover steel helmet that resembled a motorcycle rider's helmet on top of their heads, covering their entire faces, and the square black goggles at the eyes reflected cold light.

They looked bloated and heavy, as if they were wearing an old suit of armor, and there was a hint of solemnity in their bulkiness, just like this gloomy weather.

Di An'an skipped a beat.

The three of them made him feel inexplicably familiar.

What exactly are they trying to do?

The three of them each got out of the car with a pair of heavy, long, dark handbags, and one of them stood on the spot and squatted down to unzip the handbag.

One person walked straight to the parking lot.

A man walked through the barbecue camp and limped towards the lake, his inappropriate dress and strange mannerisms that attracted most of the attention of the camp.

Someone senses that something is wrong,

"Sir, take off your helmet, you're scaring the children." Tom, the coach of the baseball team, walked over and tugged on the shoulder of the man in the helmet, but he was thrown away by the other party, and the man continued to walk firmly towards the lake.

"Stop! I warn you not to look for trouble! ”

Tom shouted a warning with sharp eyes, and several tall men stepped out of the crowd and surrounded him.

“Stop sir！”

The man stopped by the lake, and a majestic and loud male voice suddenly sounded in his helmet, like a soldier announcing a password.

Several school teachers were instantly stopped by this momentum.

The crowd in the camp suddenly stopped the noise.

“We’re sodiers!”

The man put down his handbag and awkwardly patted the crippled foot,

"We gave everything for America, our youth, our health, our family, for which our hands were stained with the blood of innocents."

High-pitched voices echoed the camp.

"But when we get hurt and get sick, it ignores the injustice we suffer and sweeps us into the trash as waste!"

"Let us get drunk, fight, kill ourselves, and go to hell."

"It has abandoned the warriors who shed blood for it!"

The companion on the other side walked to the edge of the parking lot and took his words.

At the same time, the man who was squatting beside the Humvee stood up and raised a long, swarthy weapon with both hands, which Dean recognized at a glance when he patronized the gun shop not long ago—

Fully automatic, AK-47.

"Fack, damn America, fxxk, this hypocritical and disgusting society, all have to pay!"

"The price..."

The proclamation of grief and despair was mixed with a cold wind that swept through the camp like a whimper of death.

The man raised the muzzle of the black hole and aimed it at the crowd in the lakeshore camp.