Chapter 1005 Cheers (Part 2)

On the street, the lower-class people who were watching the mutant promotion exams were getting more and more excited, and the exams had already started in 10 examination halls.

The commentators in each examination hall were shouting hard, and some commentators stood directly on the table when they saw the excitement, raising their hands and cheering.

Yin Cai walked slowly towards an alley, and the bustle behind her gradually faded away. She hadn't seen District 67 so lively for a long time. This lower-class district in the northwest was near the western industrial zone. For many years, only the elderly and children could be seen here.

Most young people basically work in factories all year round, but they would come back occasionally. Yin Cai would return to the place where she was born every once in a while. The houses and streets were still the same as forty years ago, without any changes, but they became older.

There used to be a lot of children here, but now there are fewer, most of them are elderly people, and there are some familiar faces. Yin Cai did not take the initiative to greet these people, because she knew very well that if she greeted them, it would be difficult for her to get away.

When she came here, Yin Cai told the local officials of the department not to follow her. This was the case every time. So every time Yin Cai came, these officials were very tactful and stopped making a fuss, but they would still invite Yin Cai to dinner, and Yin Cai would go from time to time.

However, Yin Cai often liked to wander around this area alone, not because she missed something, but because she wanted to see something. She herself might not know exactly what she was looking for.

A long time ago, when the Western Industrial Zone was built, there was no birth control, and there were many children. Yin Cai still remembered that the streets were full of children at that time. As time went by, the grown-up children left here and were reluctant to come back. If they had family, they would occasionally come back, but if they didn't have family, they would basically never come back.

Although every district would open up the right to have children every few years, many parents in the poor districts at the bottom had voluntarily given up the right to have children. There were many districts at the bottom, like District 67, where only the old people with candles in the wind had no future and were dying little by little.

This time, the pungent metallic smell in the wind was a little lighter. Yin Cai walked on a winding stone path between the houses, going up little by little. In the distance, she could see a large building standing on the top of a hill, dilapidated and about to collapse.

The white dome was originally covered with black and gray. This facility built during the war has always been a temporary residence for homeless people in the past years.

It was finally converted into an orphanage. The land is worthless in such a place. Yin Cai stopped and looked at the broken wooden door on the left, with a small piece of metal tied to it, and a line of small words engraved on it.

Zhang Lin, if you go home, remember to find us at your uncle's house in District 89. We are waiting for you.

This is the 30th time Yin Cai has seen the rusty metal plate in her memory, and no one has touched it.

Yincai had checked that there were 15 people named Zhang Lin in the city, but none of them were born here, and their ages were not right, so this Zhang Lin should be an illegal resident. In the past, there were many criminals, illegitimate children, and people who were expelled to the barrier area and returned to the city by relying on the gully area that had not yet been fully formed. Even many people who were unwilling to pay taxes chose to hide when the population information was registered and became illegal residents.

With the virtualization of currency, these illegal residents gradually surfaced. When Niya took office 20 years ago, she cracked down on them once, but there are still some illegal residents at the bottom. Many of them are in a dilemma and can only rely on some local power gangs to help them handle wallets and live on meager income.

Among them, after the birth control was implemented that year, more children were born, and Yincai was also an illegal resident.

In front of her was a broken bridge. In the nearly 5-meter-deep gully, she could still see some rusty metal spikes and some scattered bones. This was originally a fortress on the top of a mountain, with gullies and nearly 10-meter-high walls on the periphery.

A large section of the wall on the right side of the front had collapsed. The main building inside was the tall dome house that could be seen before, with a total of 8 floors. There were houses of all sizes standing around, and the nearby area was no longer inhabited.

Yin Cai half-crouched and jumped over the 20-meter-long bridge, landing on the fallen metal gate, and memories began to come to her mind again.

When she was 14 years old, when she walked out of here, an old worker who often worked on the construction site took pity on her and took her to the construction site.

The days as an illegal resident were the most profound in Yin Cai's memory. She had to avoid people from the Action Department from time to time, and had to pay a certain amount of money to the local organization regularly.

In the past, in order to warn the remaining large number of illegal households, the Operations Department usually sentenced illegal households to 5 years in prison. When Yincai was 18 years old, she was arrested and either served 5 years in prison at the Eastern Grain Base or left the city directly.

At the age of 23, Yincai came out of prison and obtained Level 3 citizenship and a labor fee of 2,000 yuan. Yincai was shocked at the time. She never thought that after she was released from prison, she would have enough money for her temporary living and no tax would be paid in the next 3 months.

During these five years, Yincai worked on the farm during the day and learned to read with an old woman in the same cell at night. When she was working on the construction site, she found that people who could read seemed to have higher wages.

Looking at the cylindrical 8-story building in front of me, it is about to collapse. No one has cared about it for more than 30 years.

On the ground that has been corroded by a large amount of harmful metal substances and turned black, there are a lot of garbage randomly arranged. Inside the wall, in the lower place, you can see some colorful graffiti and a series of faded notes that can no longer be seen. Yincai walked over and pressed the wall with one hand. These notes were drawn by her before, together with the oldest boy in this orphanage.

More and more things emerged in the memory. Yincai has been looking for children in this orphanage for many years. More than a dozen are missing, and the rest have been registered on the death list.

This orphanage is quite large. When Yincai was younger, there were nearly 100 children in the orphanage. The director worked hard to maintain the operation of the entire orphanage alone. Relying on a factory he runs, he travels back and forth between several districts every day to collect donations everywhere.

But it was difficult to feed so many children. Children often died of illness, and the only way to deal with the dead children was to burn them and throw them into the gully.

Yincai once asked the director whether to bury them, but the director often said that although the sunlight was weak, this was on the mountain and the sunlight could reach, and he wanted to let the children sleeping in the gully bask in the sun.

What the director often told the children was that as long as they grew up and had strength, they could survive, and as long as they were still bathed in the sun, they could survive.

However, the factory run by the director eventually closed down. Yincai still remembered that the director was still thinking about countermeasures at that time. She saw the director coming back from outside several times, empty-handed and sad, but after returning, the director smiled happily again.

There were fewer and fewer children. Some children were lucky and were accepted by other welfare institutions. Some children who looked prettier were adopted. In the end, there were fewer and fewer children left, and those who were born weak and accompanied by diseases all died here without exception.

The director was still running around outside every day.

"Where are you going? Allen."

Yincai will always remember that day. The children who stayed behind suffered from hunger and illness every day. They were taken care of by 16-year-old Allen and 14-year-old Yincai.

However, when there were still nine children in the orphanage, Allen chose to leave.

"Come with me, Yincai. The two of us should be able to survive."

"Didn't you say that you are the father and I am the mother? For them!"

Alan left the orphanage without any hesitation, and Yincai did not chase him. She knew very well that if she left, the remaining children would die.

Finally, the director came back. This time he came back with a desperate expression and no longer had a smile. The director persuaded Yincai to leave.

What Yincai thought about most over the years was that she finally left. If she didn't leave at that time, she might have died here. After leaving for a while, she made some money and wanted to come back to this place that could be called home, but the reality was cruel.

Click

Yincai stepped into the door of the building in front of her. When she raised her head, she seemed to have returned to the age of 15. There was still a rotten knot hanging on the beam. The director committed suicide.

There was a sound of footsteps

"Yincai!"

A voice came from behind. Yincai's eyes widened, but she didn't turn around. She was a little confused, turned around and smiled slightly. The man behind her was wearing ordinary clothes, a white T-shirt, black jeans, with a smile on his face, but his face was slightly pale, his features were regular, and he had short hair.

But Yincai seemed to be confirming something. She seemed to have seen the man in front of her somewhere. The man smiled at Yincai, approached slowly, and took out a key from his pocket. Yincai's eyes widened immediately.

"You are Allen!"

The man nodded and put the uniquely shaped rusty key in Yincai's hand. There were many irregular sawtooths on both sides of the key, and there was a plum blossom pattern on the key handle.

Yincai was still staring at the man in front of her. She didn't believe it immediately, although the outline of the man did look familiar. The man who called himself Allen walked past Yincai.

"Come with me."

Yincai hesitated a little with the key in her hand, but still followed quickly. Everything in the hall of the building was very messy, with a lot of waste piled up.

Alan took Yincai to the stairs. After going up a distance, the stairs split into left and right sides. Alan stopped at the middle staircase, then stretched out his hand and pressed on the stairs to sweep away the accumulated dust. Soon a small piece of metal was exposed. He opened it and revealed a keyhole.

Yincai looked at Alan in surprise. The location of this keyhole was indeed known only to him and Alan. There was a relatively large bunker below, but it had been abandoned for a long time and there was nothing inside.

"Want to go down and take a look! I haven't been back for many years."

Yincai walked over and inserted the key directly into the keyhole. After turning it, accompanied by a crisp click, the stairs on both sides of the keyhole collapsed downwards, revealing an entrance, and a musty smell came out.

Alan took out his phone without saying anything and turned on the lighting function. There was a staircase going down. There was no one below. Alan went down directly. Yincai stared at the back in a daze. In her memory, Alan often did this. When no one was around, he went down. The bunker here seemed like a secret base that only she and Alan knew about.

Yincai finally nodded and followed him down. There was a bunker underground that extended all the way to the edge of the gully.

However, Yincai was a little surprised at this time. She widened her eyes. In the bunker below, which was originally empty, there were some things placed on the edges of both sides.

Click

The lights came on, and Yincai widened her eyes. There were a lot of weapons and small training facilities in the entire bunker. She had no idea what was going on in front of her. After checking some places, she found signs of life.

"What's going on?"

Yincai looked at Alan, and Alan turned around and looked at Yincai and said.

"The dean is still alive."

Yincai widened her eyes for a moment, and Alan continued to walk towards Yincai, looking like he was going to leave, and suddenly Yincai blocked in front of Alan.

"What's going on?"

Yincai could see a lot of weapons covered by cloth in the corner of her eyes.

"I'm just an illegal resident now. You may have too many things to ask, but the only thing I can tell you is that the situation will get worse and worse."

Alan continued to walk while talking, and Yincai pressed Alan's shoulder.

"Come back with me and tell me everything you know."

Alan smiled.

"You are very good now, Yincai. You have completely changed, or you have not changed all the time, and I am the same."

Alan turned his head and smiled when their eyes met.

"If you believe me, we will meet again."

Yincai looked at Alan in surprise. At this time, she was sure that the man in front of her was indeed Alan.

"What kind of credit can there be for a man who abandoned this place many years ago!"

Alan handed the key to Yincai again.

"Hold on, Yincai, this key. I came here to give it to you."

Yincai hesitated, but finally let go. At this time, her originally heavy mood improved a little, because the man in front of her was still alive, which Yincai did not expect.

"What have you been doing all these years!"

Alan walked to the stairs and turned back.

"Looking for some meaning to live."

"Have you found it?"

Alan nodded.

"Please believe me, Yincai, you are the only person I can trust in the Operations Department."

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