Apocalyptic Hoarding Diary

Chapter 488 Arrival in Qing City

The road surface was cracked, and grass had grown in the cracks. The grass was short and grew wildly close to the ground.

But the further you go in, the more different the scene becomes, with chaos and order alternating, and ruins and intact structures coexisting.

You walk past a row of collapsed buildings, and at the next street corner, a complete building may appear.

After you step over a pile of broken glass, you might find yourself at the next intersection on a smooth stretch of concrete.

This alternation creates the illusion that the city isn't so bad after all, and that it has a chance to recover.

Then, rows of buildings built against the mountain suddenly appeared.

The buildings extend up the slope of the mountain, from the foot to the top, with a very uniform architectural style: gray and white walls without any superfluous decorations.

Next, everyone saw a wide river.

The river cascades down from the mountain, splashing white water against the rocks before converging into a turbulent river that meanders along the foot of the mountain.

She looked up, her gaze passing over the river and landing on the dam at the very top of the city, a concrete structure spanning between two mountains.

The structure was so large that it would take your eyes several seconds to scan it completely from left to right.

Its color is the grayish-white characteristic of concrete, and its surface is covered with the marks of time.

Water stains, cracks, moss, and green accents from plants that seemed to have drifted in from somewhere and taken root on it.

What do dams mean? Electricity, water, and control!

With water, one can maintain basic vital signs and survive.

Electricity can prevent food from rotting and can disinfect wounds.

It is controlled and the water flow can be regulated, which can prevent both floods and waterlogging.

These three words are luxuries in the post-apocalyptic world, but in Qing City, they are everyday occurrences.

After entering Qing City with the main group, Xu Xiaoyan discovered that the buildings were all intact, which meant that they had a high level of earthquake resistance.

The windowpanes reflected the sunlight, and some windowsills even had flowerpots filled with all sorts of plants.

There are pothos vines hanging down from the windowsill, all the way down to the window above the next floor, swaying gently in the wind.

There is a spider plant with long, thin, bright green leaves, and a touch of yellowish-brown at the tips.

There were also plants with small, pink flowers that Xu Xiaoyan couldn't name; the flowers were very small and dense.

The streets were very clean, paved with gray-white flagstones. Moss grew in the gaps between the flagstones, and you could feel a slight resistance when you stepped on them.

"Xiao Yan..." Lan Yue's voice came from the side. Her voice wasn't loud, it could even be described as very soft, but Xu Xiao Yan heard it. "Is this... really?"

Xu Xiaoyan did not answer; she was unsure if she could answer the question.

She wanted to ask the same question: Is it true? Or is it just a hallucination created by her brain because she was so eager to see a "normal" place?

After passing through a heavy archway, the street suddenly widened, becoming at least three times wider than before.

Suddenly, my view opened up, and I no longer felt cramped by the walls on both sides. The buildings on both sides also changed, jumping from four or five floors to more than ten floors.

The exterior walls of those high-rise buildings were painted with off-white and light gray paint, but in some places the paint had peeled off, revealing a darker cement base underneath.

However, the overall color scheme is unified, still consisting of a mix of off-white and light gray.

The windows of these buildings are densely packed, and countless heads are peeking out from inside.

Men, women, the elderly, children—everyone's face was turned in the same direction: the place where their group was.

Those gazes were of all kinds.

Some were curious, and they were shocked that after so much time had passed, people were still coming to seek refuge.

There was sympathy, especially among the elderly, whose gaze lingered on the face of everyone in the line.

Seeing those faces roughened by wind and sand, faces dulled by exhaustion, their brows furrow slightly.

Some were wary, spending a fraction of a second looking at each stranger's face before quickly assessing whether the person posed a threat.

A little girl with pigtails leaned half her body out of a fourth-floor window.

Her pigtails were tied high and tight, with two pink bows at the ends. Her cheeks were rosy, and her two little dimples were very cute.

She held a small red flag in her hand and waved it frantically.

Her arms swung so much that her entire upper body swayed along with them, and her pigtails swung back and forth on either side of her head.

She was shouting something, but her voice was drowned out by the noise downstairs and couldn't be heard clearly.

Perhaps they were shouting "Welcome!" or "They're here!", but the innocent, undisguised excitement on her face couldn't be masked by any noise.

A young woman stood next to her, presumably her mother.

She held the little girl's shoulder with one hand, her fingers interlocking on the little girl's shoulder, as if providing silent protection.

Worried that the little girl might lean out too far and fall, she covered her mouth with her other hand, her eyes red and filled with tears.

The group stopped at a wide intersection because the road ahead was blocked by a group of uniformed soldiers.

Those people were wearing the same training uniforms as Captain Gu. They stood in a row, blocking the entire road from one side to the other.

The team leader stood at the front of the group, looking at their dusty, wind-blown, and tired faces, and said a welcoming remark.

Then, two people in dark blue uniforms walked over from the opposite side, a man and a woman, both in their early thirties.

The man was holding a folder with a thick stack of forms inside.

It was covered with densely packed words, and the edges curled up slightly in the wind. He pressed it down with his thumb to keep it from being blown away.

The woman was holding a small megaphone with the mouth of the speaker facing forward and the handle in her right hand.

She blew a breath, and a sharp sound came from the loudspeaker, causing everyone to frown.

She quickly turned the volume down a bit and then shouted "Feed!" into the loudspeaker.

The sound was much gentler this time. Although it still had a bit of the metallic quality that comes with a loudspeaker, at least it wasn't harsh.

"Hello everyone," her voice came through the loudspeaker, carrying a detached quality typical of government employees.

"I am a staff member of the Qing City Resettlement Office. My surname is Lin, and you can call me Xiao Lin."

As she said this, the corners of her mouth turned up slightly, which could be considered a smile. "First of all, welcome to Qing City."