Chapter 263: Strange Town
What is reflected in the rearview mirror is a long-collapsed sentry tower. The searchlight and place for people to stand on the top have long disappeared, leaving only a rusty steel structure frame.
Under the steel frame, there is a mass of something similar to "Meat Ganoderma" - this mass of "Meat Ganoderma" has long been integrated with the steel frame and extends to the top of the steel frame.
There, the "Meat Ganoderma" grew a spherical bud, and the surface of the bud was covered with cracks... If you look carefully, you can see that these cracks are densely packed with things that look like eyeballs.
At the root of the fleshy Ganoderma, leaning crookedly on a tattered doll, the doll's limbs had long been broken, and they were entirely held together by the biological tissue provided by the "Meaty Ganoderma". On the doll's hand, a rubber-covered baton stained with dark red stains is fixed with nails.
The dirty armbands on the doll's arms are actually "meat rings" made of rotten meat.
Just one look at this weird thing is enough to clear a person's SAN value directly to zero.
Fortunately, Sun Hang's character attributes do not include SAN value.
"Did the lights just come from the eyeballs?" Sun Hang murmured in his heart, "But these eyeballs shouldn't have a 360-degree field of vision... otherwise this weird thing wouldn't be in the rearview mirror. The true appearance is revealed..."
Sun Hang withdrew his gaze and continued to drive forward.
The outline of the building gradually enlarged and became clearer, and the lights became more and brighter... For some reason, Sun Hang always felt that these warm yellow lights gave him a warm and secure feeling, as if he was wandering outside. After decades of wandering, when I returned to my hometown, I saw the familiar oil lamp hanging at the door of my home...
"Damn it, am I an aboriginal from the Yunnan area?" Sun Hang took a deep breath and stopped the car.
Maoyun Town is said to be a town, but from the current perspective, many villages in Shuzhou are larger than it - this so-called town does not even have a road into the town, only a narrow, The bumpy muddy road runs straight through the middle of the town.
Unlike the land in the wilderness, which is so dry that cracks can be seen everywhere, it seems that it has just rained in Maoyun Town. Sun Hang's boots made a squeaking sound on the mud, and every step he took left a footprint two or three centimeters deep. .
He took out the mirror he found in the car from his pocket - it was a box of makeup powder that Yang Qi threw in the car, but it seemed that she hadn't used it for a long time. As soon as Sun Hang opened the box, it was broken into pieces. The crumbly powder immediately fell out in a splatter.
Fortunately, Sun Hang doesn't need these things.
"Is this considered buying a casket for a pearl?"
Sun Hang wiped the small mirror on the inside of the box with his thumb, and pointed the mirror at the ground with the help of the car light.
Fortunately, the mud is still mud. Although it seems to be mixed with some dark red liquid, it is at least better than what Sun Hang expected.
When he first got off the car, he subconsciously thought that the road was paved with rotten flesh, just like the Zerg carpet in "StarCraft".
There is a saying that goes well, as long as you keep your expectations low enough, you will never be disappointed.
As long as the situation is assumed to be the worst, then as long as the reality is not so bad that it cannot be worse, then all the news is good news.
"It's good news to be able to find a town where 'people' live." Sun Hang murmured to himself, "The old man guarding the entrance of the town has a good attitude towards me, which is even better news. .”
Sun Hang turned the box slightly and pointed the mirror at Maoyun Town not far away.
He originally thought he would see a scene of demons dancing wildly in the mirror, which was still in ruins at worst... But in fact, the Maoyun Town shown in the mirror was very different from what Sun Hang saw with his naked eyes.
The most obvious difference is probably that those warm yellow lights have turned into pale cold colors.
"...Is it really a small town?"
Sun Hang put away the box, put it in his pocket, and then took out the assault rifle from the passenger seat.
But soon, he put the rifle back again.
If "people" don't offend me, I won't offend "people"... The two strange things Sun Hang came into contact with before, whether it was the "old woman" or the "old man" guarding the entrance, they did not show any malice towards him...
This means that these monsters seem to have regarded Sun Hang as "one of their own"... And from the words of the "old man", it can be confirmed that this town is not exclusive - at least it does not exclude "outsiders" like Sun Hang ".
If Sun Hang entered the town with such an obvious weapon, it would easily arouse the hostility of the "town residents".
"It's better to go in and take a look first." In the end, Sun Hang only took the five-cent note and the "rice cake" that the old woman gave him, then locked the car door and walked towards the town, stepping on the mud. .
I don't know if it's the wrong time or some other reason, but there aren't many "townspeople" on the street. Most of the buildings are closed, even those with lights on - there are only a few here and there. The door of the store-like shop was open, and there were a few dustpans propped up on benches at the door, with some strange products placed on them.
As for the shop owner and stall owner, he is hidden in the shadow behind the door. You can vaguely see the outline of a vague human figure, or a hookah half protruding from the darkness, and a thin wisp of smoke rising up.
The clothes of these townspeople are very ancient... No one wears this kind of clothes in Shuzhou today. There are only some scenic ancient towns and villages that sell such retro clothes in the name of "handicrafts" .
Sun Hang's eyes swept around the street. There were three men and four women, plus two little girls, a total of nine townspeople... To the naked eye, they were perfectly normal human beings, with no signs of physical mutation. .
However, Sun Hang soon discovered an anomaly: these villagers, whether male or female, all looked sallow and thin, except for the two little girls, who were white and fat, in sharp contrast to the adults.
"This town...doesn't have enough food?" Sun Hang wondered, "But why is there such an obvious difference between 'adults' and 'children'?"
As he walked, he thought about it and passed by a "middle-aged woman", but the woman only looked down and counted the contents of the basket she was carrying, and did not look at Sun Hang at all.
Not only her, but all the townspeople on the street had no obvious reaction to Sun Hang's appearance... It was as if Sun Hang was a "person" living in this town.
Two little girls, one holding a rattle and the other holding a paper kite, were chasing each other back and forth. Sun Hang took a look at the toys in their hands - the ropes of the rattle's ears had been broken, and the two beads used to beat the drum head were missing; and the paper kite, the paper paste on the bamboo frame was also covered in scars. Bai Kong has completely lost the ability to fly by the wind.
Sun Hang did not take the initiative to talk to the townspeople, but continued walking forward in silence until he stopped in front of a stall.
There were not many things sold at the stall, but they were miscellaneous - a cartoon-shaped hand-cranked pencil sharpener, a few poorly made glass beads, a pair of old straw sandals, a folding knife with peeling paint and a A tung-colored oil-paper umbrella.
These products all have one thing in common, that is, they are all "broken".
The rocker of the pencil sharpener is broken, the surface of the glass beads is covered with scratches, the laces of the straw sandals have long been frayed, and the folding knife has a curled blade that cannot be retracted into the handle... As for the oil-paper umbrella, although the fan-shaped It's still intact, but at least twenty of the twenty-eight ribs are broken... "This Is this shop a trade in scraps?" Sun Hang turned to look at the items displayed at the door of several other shops and found that the contents were all similar. They were all items that could only be described as "tattered"... and the most disturbing thing was What Sun Hang cares about is that none of these shops sell "food".
"Food shortage? But if that's the case...why is that 'old lady' still willing to share 'food' with me?" Sun Hang was a little puzzled, "Since the shops in the town don't sell food, why does the 'old lady' still want to share food with me? Money?”
"No... From the words of the old man at the gate, I can confirm that you can indeed buy food in the town... Could it be that you are in the wrong place and the food shops are elsewhere?"
Sun Hang squatted down in front of the stall and looked up into the store.
The shop door is ajar, leaving only a palm-wide crack. The shop owner seems to be sitting behind the door crack, holding a hookah made of a whole section of bamboo in his hand. As the shop owner smokes a hookah, the cigarette holder is The burning light flickered on and off, as if breathing.
The sound of smoking stopped, and a hoarse voice came from the crack in the door: "The price is fair, I'm a good boy, just tell me what you like."
"Boss, I want to ask, do you accept anything here?" Sun Hang asked.
"Collect it?" The shopkeeper's tone was a little strange, "What do you want to sell?"
"Eat." Sun Hang took out the container with "rice cakes" and placed it on the dustpan.
The shopkeeper didn't speak, but Sun Hang could hear "his" breathing quickening. Along with the creaking sound of the bench, the shopkeeper seemed to have come to the crack of the door and was looking at the contents of the container at close range.
Check out the 16-9 book bar and see the correct version!
But even so, Sun Hang still couldn't see the other person's face clearly.
The darkness in the room does not seem to be darkness in the optical sense, but a flowing substance. They fill the entire room and cover the shop owner.
Before the shop owner could speak, a sudden voice sounded behind Sun Hang.
"What a beautiful piece of bait."
Sun Hang turned around and saw that it was the middle-aged woman who passed by before. She did not know when she "teleported" behind Sun Hang. A fanatical light flashed in her somewhat cloudy eyes, and she kept Repeatedly swallowing saliva.
"Bait cubes... It turns out that this 'rice cake' is called bait cubes." Sun Hang silently wrote it down in his mind.
"Is there something to eat?"
"What? Where?"
It was good that the middle-aged woman remained silent. As soon as she spoke, the "adult" townspeople on the street were instantly attracted... Only the two fat little girls were still minding their own fun, completely Don't care what happens here.
"What are you doing? Get started! Get started!" The shopkeeper's voice came from inside the door, with a hint of anger, "He is planning to sell this bait to me! What does it have to do with you!"
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"Have you given me any money?" The middle-aged woman took another step closer, "If you haven't given me any money, it means it hasn't been sold yet!"
"I'll buy it now! Tell me how much this thing costs!" the shop owner said quickly, as if he was afraid that the bait would be snatched away by other townspeople.
Just when Sun Hang was thinking about what price to quote, the middle-aged woman rushed forward and reached out to grab the container!
Soon enough, the darkness in the store overflowed from the crack in the door, wrapped around the middle-aged woman's arm, and pulled her towards the store!
The middle-aged woman's face began to distort, her mouth opened wide, and she let out an unexplained cry from her throat... However, no matter how hard she struggled, she was finally dragged into the store bit by bit.
Her screams died away as the darkness swallowed up her last exposed foot.
The townspeople who gathered around suddenly showed fear on their faces and backed away... After a while, they dispersed in all directions.
"You deserve what you deserve if you don't follow the rules." The store manager said in a hateful tone, "These bitches are all spoiled by them... They really think they are something..."
Sun Hang: "Uh..."
"Set a price." The shopkeeper urged, "As long as it's within the range I can accept."
Sun Hang actually wanted to ask the other party what the acceptable range was, but he changed his mind and changed the question.
"Are you... hungry?"
"Hungry? Hehehe...hehehe..." A slight strange laugh came from the crack in the door, "Aren't you talking nonsense? In today's world, how many people do you think can fill their stomachs? Locust plague, drought , floods... there is famine every year, people starve to death every year... Who is not hungry? Go and ask someone on the street, who is not hungry?"
"Famine...is it a drought this year?" Sun Hang asked subconsciously, recalling the cracked soil in the wilderness.
"Isn't it true? In this scorching sun, all the crops we planted were burned to death... The landlords don't even have any food left at home," said the shop owner.
Sun Hang raised his head and saw that the sky was dark and there was no sun at all.
He had used a mirror to observe the sky before, and the sky in the mirror was also black.
"Is there enough food in the town?" Sun Hang asked again.
"If you want to say it's not enough, it's definitely not enough." The shop owner suddenly smiled strangely again, "Hey... But if you want to say it's enough, then it's enough."
"Huh? What does this mean?" Sun Hang was a little confused, "Is this enough or not enough?"
"If you want to feed that mouth, there will definitely not be enough food. But as long as enough people starve to death... then there will definitely be enough food in the end. Hehe, maybe there will be a surplus!"
(End of chapter)