Chapter 67 Rules

This is a man who is about thirty years old.

He was not tall and thin, and he was wearing a gray-green cotton coat on his upper body. He was wrapped in a few dirty rag strips below his knees. His hair was almost gone. He had a slightly bent steel bar in his hand, supporting his tired body to prevent him from falling.

The atmosphere in the refugee camp became tense again, and the gunpowder muzzles and sharp steel bars were aimed at the new uninvited guests. However, the expressions on people's faces were not as vigilant as they were when they treated Lin Xiang. The deterrence of the sniper rifles and ordinary metal sticks was obviously far stronger than that of the latter.

The man stretched his neck and smelled the rich aroma of the broth floating in the iron pot. The triangular joints in his throat slid down the esophagus. His thin body was trembling violently as if he was uncontrollably. His eyes released hungry and excited eyes. His dry and firewood-like arms were tightly inserted into the steel bars on the ground. His face was a little hesitant, and he seemed to be struggling.

After a long time, he staggered up, licked his half-dry lips, and begged the middle-aged man, who was led by the refugees in a nearly moaning tone: "Please... can you, can you give me a bowl of soup?"

The middle-aged man weighed the thick-back machete in his hand and looked at every detail on the other person's body with his scrutiny eyes. He turned around the man and when he walked behind him, he leaned out and put his nostrils up to the same height as the other person's shoulders. He frowned and sniffed hard. After confirming that the other person's body did not emit the odor of radiation, his face returned to his original indifference and said, "What are you using for exchange?"

"I, I have nothing." The man shook his head sadly, opened all the pockets of his clothes, unbuttoned the buttons of his coat, revealing his skinny naked body wrapped in it, and begged: "I don't eat much. Half a bowl of soup... No, just give me one bite, one bite is enough. Please!"

The middle-aged man cleared his throat, spitted thick phlegm in front of the man, waved his hand impatiently, turned around and sat back in front of the fire.

The rusty and black metal lunch box, the semi-decaying wooden bowl, the gap cup, and even a military helmet that was slightly deformed and turned upside down as a bowl... The containers of various shapes were squeezed and placed next to the iron pot. The woman holding the spoon untied the bib full of oil, took out a half-old plastic bag from it, pulled open the seal tightly tied with a rope, and used three fingers to pick out a few pieces of sand-like salt into the pot. She stirred it back and forth with the iron spoon. After the soup boiled again, she scooped up the nearly transparent clear soup and slowly put it into the containers that had been put in place.

While Lin Xiang waved his hand and refused to give the woman a soup, he picked up the hot kettle from the front of the fire. From time to time, he glanced at the man outside the waiting camp.

This is an ordinary person. From him, Lin Xiang did not notice any evolving or strengthening human aura.

"Please, just have a sip of soup. I, I'm so hungry..."

The action of dividing soup further stimulated the man's empty stomach and wriggling violently. Suddenly, his legs bent, and he knelt on the ground with a "thump", looking at the people who started eating in the camp and begged: "Give me a sip of soup! Please, if you don't eat anything, I will starve to death..."

The middle-aged man in the head slowly turned his head, his face full of anger. He spat hard at the man and shouted sternly without warning: "Get out--"

The sudden change scared the man so much that he shrank back a few steps. The refugees sitting in front of the fire burst into laughter.

Lin Xiang slowly chewed his corn cakes in the pot, watching the scene in front of him coldly.

The man did not leave. He stood far away in a place where the fire could be seen, and his eyes were full of sadness and looked here helplessly. After a long time, he seemed to have made up his mind and walked over quickly. Under the surprised and indifferent eyes of the refugees, he gritted his teeth and took off his only coat, held it up with his thin arms, and handed it to the middle-aged man. He took a deep breath, and said reluctantly but extremely helplessly: "I...I use this exchange."

So, another person was added in front of the fire.

The refugees were not stingy. An enamel teapot about the size of a football and was knocked to the bottom and was handed to the man. It contained hot broth and was almost spread to the edge of the jar.

The man drank very slowly. He had to savor each sip in his mouth for a long time before he swallowed it slowly. The few strips of meat that had sunk at the bottom of the jar were gathered up by his fingers full of dirt and stuffed them into his mouth without leaving any left. Finally, he stuck out his tongue and licked the leftover soup left on the wall of the jar until he had eaten everything. Then he reluctantly put down the teapot, licking his lips with unsatisfactory intentions, sat next to the fire silently, looking at the iron pot that had already seen the bottom.

"Okay, the soup is over. You go!" the middle-aged man picked up a piece of firewood placed at his hand and threw it into the fire, and said lightly.

The man suddenly turned around, stared at the other party with frightened eyes, and said in a trembling voice: "You, where did you ask me to go?"

"That's your own business. I don't care." The middle-aged man looked fierce and grabbed the machete leaning against his feet with his right hand: "That dress can only be exchanged for a bowl of soup. You have already got what you need, and strangers are not welcome to spend the night here."

"Get get it get it-"

The man's teeth were trembling involuntarily, and he begged with fear, "I, I only have that piece of clothing. It's night again, please, let me live on the fire all night. I will leave at dawn, okay?"

His body was almost naked, and there was nothing to resist the cold except for a few dirty strips of ragged cloth.

"All those who wander in the wilderness should abide by the rules." The middle-aged man who picked up the machete looked a little ferocious: "That piece of clothing is only enough to drink soup, not enough to spend the night. Either I will chop off your head now, or you can get out of here-"

The entire camp became extremely quiet. Everyone's eyes were focused on the man. Contempt, disdain, ridicule, indifference... but there was no sympathy. Even the children's eyes were filled with coldness like stones.

The man was completely desperate.

He slowly stood up from the fire, hugged his arms tightly in front of his chest, and looked at the beating flames in the stone stove for a last last time with pain and helplessness, and dragged his footsteps past the middle-aged man.

Without clothes, without fire, he would never have another ending except to freeze to death...

"Wait a moment--"

Suddenly, Lin Xiang, who was sitting in front of the fire, stood up, took out a thick velvet blanket bought from Emma City from his backpack, strode to the man, shook the velvet blanket hard against the cold night wind, and gently draped it on his naked and trembling shoulders.

"I...you...this is..."

The man opened his lips, which were frozen in cold, wanted to speak, but couldn't say a word. After a long time, he endured the excitement and tension in the group, looked at Lin Xiang's black combat suit with a good texture uneasy, and said stutteringly: "...I, I have nothing to exchange for. I, I am..."

"This is what I gave to you."

As he said that, he gently patted the man on the shoulder and helped him to the fire. He turned around and took out another tortilla from his backpack and threw it to the middle-aged man: "This cake should be enough for him to spend the night."

Such an action caused a small commotion among the refugees. People's eyes were no longer friendly, even with unconcealed hostility. At the same time, they were filled with incomprehensible surprise and confusion.

People in the wilderness only have naked interests.

In this era, there is no so-called friendship or help.

The middle-aged man frowned, took the biscuit and put it in his palm and weighed it. He looked at Lin Xiang with a gloomy face, then looked at the gun behind him, and said, "You shouldn't do this, we should all abide by the rules."

"I know." Lin Xiang nodded lightly, took out a few Sosbian dollars from his top pocket, and stuffed them directly into the palm of his hand: "Give him the clothes back and give him another bowl of soup. I'll pay, and no one child is missing-"

Lin Xiang could not use the rules of the old era to determine who is right and who is wrong. In order to fill his stomach, the refugees gave the other party what they needed according to their promise. They could not use the laws of the civilized era to measure their behavior. As middle-aged people said - "People who wander in the wilderness must abide by the rules."

He could not care for everyone like God. This era has its own rules, and he neither participated in the formulation nor wanted to violate it.

Lin Xiang also has his own rules. Although it is impossible to change the concepts of everyone in the entire era, at least, he must be worthy of his conscience.

The night is very dark and cold.

The howling wind blew wildly from the wilderness, bringing a dense Mars scattered in the air from the fire, as if it was to completely extinguish this flame that dared to fight against itself with endless darkness and cold.

The refugees formed an irregular ring around the bonfire, wrapped around their bodies with felt and cloth, feeling the warmth that was so close that they fell asleep.

The man slept soundly, and he curled his body, wrapped in a thick velvet blanket and coat. The shaking flame reflected on his thin black face, illuminating a satisfying thing that remained on the surface of his skin.

The first ray of dawn that the sun emerged from the horizon reflected the sleeping faces of people red.

Rubbing his sour and dry eyelids, Lin Xiang, who woke up from his sleep, stretched his waist very comfortably. After simply packing his luggage, he grabbed a few handfuls of snow from the nearby ground and rubbed it between his face and palms. The cold snow water melted by the body temperature stimulated Hun Chao's mind to recover again.

There was only a little red ember left in the fire. As early as the people who woke up added enough fuel, bright red flames quickly floated out of the stove circle surrounded by stones. Several women walked from the neighborhood with basins and large bowls filled with snow, refilling the washed iron pot. As the heat continued to swallow, the white cold crystals quickly turned into half a pot of turbid hot water.

The man who woke up was standing next to Lin Xiang. He obviously wanted to say something, but like yesterday, except for gratitude and tension, he really couldn't express his thoughts in words.

Lin Xiang left half of the jade cake, five hundred Sosbian yuan, and his pistol and two boxes of bullets on his body.

The man opened his eyes wide and looked at the things in front of him blankly, and he was simply incredible.

"Why?" He gasped, trying to express his inner impulse and impact in simple words: "I, I have nothing, I have nothing to exchange with you."

"Because... we are all friends." After hesitation, Lin Xiang used the word "friend" that had long been buried in dust and ruins.

The man stared blankly at the things in his hand, and kept repeating these two words. When he came to his senses, Lin Xiang's back had already walked away.

The middle-aged man with a complex expression stood in the distance, his eyebrows sometimes frowned and slowly stretched out. He seemed to be thinking about the true meaning of this ancient word.

In the sky, thick clouds are constantly changing shapes, they are surging back and forth without any moisture.

The sun, lazily hiding behind the clouds, occasionally revealing a little golden face from the gap, and is instantly covered by a fierce cover.

Going eastward, you can occasionally see the afterimage of the ruins under the sky from a distance of the road. The tall and straight concrete buildings stand at the junction of heaven and earth, like neatly concave and convex teeth, tearing the two spaces that are always ready to be connected together, and tearing them apart.

In this area, there are few refugees. In contrast, creatures like rotten wolf and hyenas frequently appear. They cannot catch up with Lin Xiang, and can only search for the scattered bones left by humans in the old era in the cracks of car wreckage and rocks, and use these things that turn into powder with a slight touch to fill their hungry stomachs.

Crescent City, a city built on the wilderness.

Unlike all the cities Lin Xiang had seen before, it has a wall of more than 20 meters high. Under the dim sunlight, the sloping wall surface appears cold grayish white.

This is a real reinforced concrete building. Looking at this defensive facility that wraps the entire city, Lin Xiang suddenly felt the illusion of returning to the past era.

Countless concrete columns ten centimeters square are buried deep in the soil, and on the cylinders about five meters above the ground, there are more than twenty iron wires as thick as fingers. The dense linear metal is divided into sharp thorns, and any creature who wants to climb over them and protrude into the back area will be pricked and bloody.

Lin Xiang, who has military experience in the old era, knew that this iron wire was not as simple as it seemed on the surface. As long as a powerful current was passed, the power they released was much more terrifying than they thought.

There is no defense facility around the city wall. Lin Xiang noticed that on the ground about twenty meters behind the power grid, the traces of the old and new soil alternating between the old and new soil are very regular. Judging from the traces of loose soil, it seems that something will extend from the ground at a fixed time. According to the size and area of ​​the new and old edges of the soil, it should be anti-infantry equipment such as automatic firing machines.

A spacious cement pavement extends from the edge of the city to the wilderness.

As soon as the soft soles touched the road, Lin Xiang immediately felt that at least five muzzles pointed at him from the city wall of more than 200 meters. The manipulators had already taken them into sight. The other party would estimate his identity based on experience in the shortest time, so as to decide whether to shoot or let it go.

This is definitely not an illusion caused by fear—a few semi-corrupt corpses with ferocious faces lie on the ground nearby. Judging from the body shape and clothing of the dead, they should be mobs who wandered in the wilderness, waiting for an opportunity to loot the wanderers and eat them as food.

Lin Xiang tightened the sniper rifle belt on his shoulders, walked slowly towards the entrance that could be seen vaguely at the end of the road with his steps as usual.

A black and yellow metal pole was blocked across the road. A twenty-year-old, with freckles on both sides of his nose, wearing a light gray uniform, black skeleton logo on his chest and left arm, and a young guard with an AK rifle on his shoulder walked up, raised his right hand to signal Lin Xiang to stand outside the cordon drawn with yellow paint on the ground, squinted his eyes and looked at the mercenary nameplate hanging on his chest, and asked vigilantly: "What's the matter?"

"Accept the task." As he said that, Lin Xiang took out a certificate of identity issued by Sosbia from his pocket. The signature at the end included Gliffiz's signature and the company's eye-catching one-horned lion pattern.

The guard did not reach out to take it directly. He took out a thermal energy detector shaped like a hairdryer from the whistle next to him, aimed the striped detection port with red light at Lin Xiang's neck, and confirmed that the reading did not show any problems. Then he took the document. After carefully distinguishing the photo in the upper right corner with Lin Xiang himself, he reached into the whistle and pressed the start button of the crossbar. Amid the dull and rigid sound of gear friction, the heavy yellow and black crossbar slowly rose toward the top, and the guard's cold face also showed a faint smile: "Welcome to the Crescent City."

Compared with Emma City, Crescent City obviously covers a much larger area. However, the number of residents in the city is very small.

On both sides of the spacious street, two-story buildings decorated with red roofs and white walls are neatly arranged. They are all reinforced concrete products. On the side facing the street, standard numbers are written in black paint on the walls. Occasionally, a few pedestrians pass by, but they are all soldiers wearing light gray uniforms and corresponding classes of soldiers on their shoulders and chests.

From any perspective, this place does not look like a city, but more like a huge military camp.

Following the signposts erected on the street, Lin Xiang easily found the five-story central building. In the square in front of the building, which was thousands of square meters, hundreds of fully armed mercenaries gathered. They gathered together in groups of three and three, talking in a low voice. At the entrance to the building, there were two rows of standard skeleton warriors standing. An officer in the costume of a second lieutenant but was obviously not a parasitic stood in front, with his hands on his back, and looked back and forth with his cold eyes.
Chapter completed!